Church-Key The Lactese Falcon

Formerly brewed at Church-Key Brewing
Style: Sour Red/Brown
Pethericks Corners, Canada

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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My rating from 2009. Poured a reddish brown, 2 fingers of head, good lacing. Smelled like puke and parmesan. If I could give this a negatie rating I would. Taste of Parmesan cheese and green apple. Medium bodied, but the aftertaste came back with a vengenace. I hate to crap on an Ontario Micro but I hope Church Key retired this. Liquid Garbage - the brewers equivilant of Athlete’s feet. A perfect Lent beer - after this you won’t want to drink another beer for at least 40 days. That this was sold in Bombers for 9 bucks blows my mind to this day. if you’re a masochist or up for a misadventure, hunt down a bottle of this bad boy - and by bad I mean undrinkable puke-scented shit.

“Dinner bottle” from the Church, served at cellar temperature in a tulip glass. Likely 2.5-3 years old. 25FE11.

App.: Very deep mahogany with a smallish tan head. Aroma: Lots of rich wood and sour cherries, dark dried fruits, a touch of funk and cheese, beautiful fruit and refined acidity, a beautiful Sour Ale...so unexpected! Palate: Medium body and moderate effervescence. Flav.: Tons of rich sour black cherries, dark dried fruits, refined sourness, this is beautiful!, more cherries, wood, lovely!; dry with elegant sourness and a nice sour cherry finish.

OMG! I have been avoiding this beer due to the ratings. It was supposed to be a disaster of barf, sour milk and yuck. It was excellent! Did I get a random “good bottle” or did this really need a few years to age? Either way, nice!

650mL bottle from a contemporary beer appreciator. I know not what I was thinking. Pours an opaque brownish red with a large tan head. The aroma is just awful. Blue cheese, dark fruit undertone, caramalt, just way too much cheese and I love cheese/sour beers. Essence of vomit. Flavour is bleeeechcheehhehvnkjejlfvscvdvc........UHHHHGGG. Those are actually the words that come to mind. All of the same elements as the aroma, with a disgusting sour finish, that’s just so revolting. Makes me cringe, which I usually find undesirable in beers. I can’t manage more than a few ounces. The basic aspects seem to compose a decent beer, but then it’s like someone violently threw up in the fermenter. Holy crap, what a f***ing train wreck. I don’t understand why Church Key exists, which makes me angry in a philosophical kind of way. There are those sour ales that have all the same elements as this one, and are delicious, and then there is the other kind....

Purchased bottle @ Church-Key Brewery. Dark brown color with a small head and no lacing. Cheese with a lingering sour aroma. Strong tart taste with some cheese flavor and a bitter finish. A sour aftertaste that just lingered. Medium body, somewhat creamy with some acidity. First sour ale and definitely not what I was expecting. A unique brew. All I can think of is curdled milk.

This beauty is courtesy of thecheeseman, I love thecheeseman! Pours a nice looking amber with tan head. It tosses up a full aroma of crumbly dry blue cheese and little else. The taste is malts, a bit of caramel malts and growing into full on blue cheese. By midway it is simply firm, dry, robust, tangy crumbly blue cheese notes. Wow! I’ve never had anything anywhere close to what this smells and tastes like, strange.

Bottle (dregs)… Pours clear and dark brown with an orange shimmer and a small, creamy, white head. The bouquet is sweaty, beefy, acidic and acetic with additional notations of chocolate, toasted nuts and dried plum. Medium-bodied with expired carbonation. The flavor is roasted, but also very tart and lactic. Tangy finish. Not nearly as bad as expected. Odd, but I’m odd too. Bottle courtesy of TheCheeseMan!

pours mahogany with a medium tan head. Aroma is blue cheese and vinegary sourness. Pretty funky aroma. The flavour in the front is actually pretty nice. Good tart sourness, some very dry white wine/green grape and maybe over ripe cherries combining. Then there passes a funky cheese and something that finishes almost bile like and lingering that forces you to take another sip to get back to that tart fruitiness. The more you drink, the more you get accustomed to it and the cheese and funk flavours pass by much more quickly than the initial impression. Barely a hint of alc in there. Certainly interesting, and definitely not for everyone. So-so sour. It is almost unfair to the beer to rate this on less than 12oz samples, as it does grow on you a bit as you drink. Mine was the 22oz bomber and I finished the entire thing, eventually.

Deep crimson colour with a very bubbly tan head. Intersting scent. Bready with a touch of spice. Tons of flavour. Actually too much. Overpowering. Tates like old aged chedder. Very sour aftertastes. Very unique and different. Not quite sure what I think of this one.

Bomber from the brewery, served in my very nice Church Key Snifter! I"m assuming this beer is roughly 10-12 months old. VERY dark pour, just the slightest bit of light comes through the DARk ruby color, just enough to let me know this isnt black. A nice full beige head, that lasts, and leaves a nice lacing. Ok, there is that notorious cheese aroma. Some provolone, some danish blue cheese, but once you get past the cheezy funk, there are some berries in there, and a touch of mollasses. Flavour is funky! Definetly the blue cheese, funk, but it’s not that bad, there is some nice sour apple, and some tangy berries. Leaves a nice twang in my mouth. This isnt that bad. I think the ageing in the bottle helped.