CooperSmiths Oud Bruin

Brewed by CooperSmiths Pub & Brewing
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

UPDATED: MAR 31, 2009 Draft @ Coopersmiths. Dark plum brown colored body with a fine bubbled off-white head. Served at way too cold of a temperature but the esters and acids are just burping right out of the glass. Intensely fresh plum, raisin and nuts with a prickly and active acetic acid note. Extremely heavy and active oak presence, the wood is bright and fresh and tannic, there’s a lot of the same wood character in this beer as there is in La Folie. Hugely rich, wonderfully peppery, nicely balanced by sweet plum-flavored malt sweetness. Fantastic beer in every respect. Best beer made by Coopersmiths.

On tap at the brewpub. Poured a hazy garnet-brown color with an inch thick beige head that slowly receded. Aroma of funky barnyard yeast with hints of tart fruit (cherry, grape) and a light caramel sweetness paired with a soft earthiness including some oak. Smooth, moderately sweet entry with hints of ripe fruit (cherry, raspberry, grape) that leads into a funky, moderately tart middle with hints of cobwebby yeast and some light acidity paired with some mild grape skin and oak tannins and a lightly sweet, lingering caramel finish. Low carbonation and moderate mouthfeel thanks to the full yeastiness. Overall, a really solid, traditional tasting Flemish brew produced by the brewpub. Good job guys.

This beer is a thing of beauty! It poured a nearly opaque, dark crimson-brown color with an average, creamy, light-brown, mostly lasting head. The aroma was bright, complex and engaging. It had a light malt aroma of toasted grain; trace yeast aroma of cellar and loads of sour, spicy and fruity micellaneous notes of (in approximate order of weight) cherries, dried stone fruit and raisin, balsamic vinegar, red wine, clove, allspice, wood and a trace of copper/raw meat. The flavor was moderately sweet, heavily acidic and moderately bitter with a long, lightly sweet, heavily acidic spine-tingling finish. The palate was luxuriously smooth—tempering the sourness of the flavor and making this a remarkably drinkable brew. The body was medium-to-full, the texture was creamy and the carbonation was lively.

Very dark brown color. Small, off-white head diminishes quickly. Very rich nose, very vinous, with hints of Welch’s grape juice and Pinot Noir, as well as light hints of red fruits and very mild cask wood. Very true to style flavor, which is very sour and acidic. Flavor is very similar to the aroma, with vinous grape flavors and a mild woody tone. Would have liked the mouthfeel to be a bit more lively and I wish the flavor could have been a bit more wooy, but maybe that’s more difficult than I think. Just like their Flander’s Red, this is a very impressive sour beer. They must have a passion for sour/funky beers.

Draught, Coopersmiths, Ft Collins. Head is mostly diminishing. Body is dark reddish brown. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain, caramel), moderately yeasty (barnyard, horseblanket), with notes of cherry, wood, allspice, tobacco. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately acidic. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Medium body, watery/velvety texture, lively carbonation, lightly to moderately astringent. HOLY SHIT. Coopersmith finally makes a beer I like, and no fooling. I think I had about 22 ounces of this stuff during my visit, and it never revealed any weaknesses. I’m shocked, really. This is a serious Flemish sour. No, really, I’m not kidding. How, or pehaps a better question is why, they made this is beyond me. But all you need to know is if this is on tap, you don’t even have to worry about all the other stuff on the menu. Yeah, yeah, it’s not quite in the league of Panil or Supplication, etc., but make no mistake, this is a serious frickin’ beer. Well done, brewers!

Draught at CooperSmiths. Pours mahagony to dark brown with a small foamy tan head. Sour cherry, raspberry hop aroma is huge from the glass with some caramel malt in the background. Sour tart berry flavor with malt body and vinegar notes. Medium bodied and clean palate.

Dark clear mahogany with a creamy, mocha-brown head. Aroma is sweet cherries hinting to sour. First taste is a huge smack of sour cherries, one of the biggest up-front sours I’ve tasted. Sourness fades, but a moderate puckering sourness maintains all the way through. After the initial fade, some nice oak and vinous flavors come in, maybe a wine barrel? Way late in the finish comes just a touch of hops and some darker, possibly roasted malts. Well balanced, and aged appropriately without too much oak (and certainly no bourbon in this one.)