Craftsman El Prieto Sour Black Ale

Brewed by Craftsman Brewing Co.
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Pasadena, California USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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(Draught) Pours a mahogany body with a small beige head. Aroma of caramel, Dr. Pepper, nuts, berries, and some vinegar. Flavor of roasted malt, fruitiness, vinous, caramel, and moderately sour.

Draft @ Downtown Johnny Brown’s. Pours translucent black color with tan head. Aromas of sour cherries, oak, toasted malt, and oak. Similar flavors with some bourbon, quite sour. Medium body with moderate carbonation. Very nice.

Tap at Select Beer Store. Pours clear black with a small, fizzy off-white head, short retention with spare lacing. Aroma is acetic vinegar, figs and plums with light caramel malt and earthy hops. Flavor is sour dark fruit, biscuit and cookie malt with spicy notes and a dry finish. Medium body, warmth and carbonation.

Tap. Pours deep, dark brown with thin, fizzy off-white head; short retention and spare lacing. Aroma is black cherries and other sour fruit, caramel malt, light dank hops, and balsamic. Flavor is heavy sour fruit with sweet malt undertones and tart, lemon finish. Medium body, carbonation, and warmth.

Sampled on draft at the Provisions store. It pours dark brown with ruby tinged highlights and an off white head. The aroma is sour black cherries with hints of cocoa and funk. The flavor has black cherry with some lactic, lemony sour pucker and nice graham cracker and cocoa malt quality. Mildly toasty, bretty finish. I really enjoyed this one a lot. I’d get this again any time I see it on draft, which unfortunately for me will not be often enough.

Tom beat me to it, at my new stomping ground. Tulip at Pizza Port OB. Looks brown/black with garnet edges and a small light beige head, solis thick beige ring. Flavor has some caramel sweetness and light chocolate, moderate lactic acid with some underlying acetic acid. Flavor is nice and sour--mainly clean lacto--with good roast and chocolate towards the dry finish. No burnt notes. Sourness peaked at 5, bitterness 2. Medium full body, low to moderate carbonation. Quite tasty.

On tap at PP OB. Pitch black color. Tart dark fruit on the nose. Up front lactic sour quality with a backbone of cherry, grape, and plum. Nice body and finish. Surprisingly good.

Very dark brown, cola sort of color with a khaki head. Very nice sourness with black cherry, raisin, and plum notes. A hint of lemon and mild balsamic vinegar, too. Only a touch of roasted malt. The tartness is fairly lactic and clean. Not quite as much fruit character as is present on the nose, but still some raisin and black cherry. Mild roast with a subtle sweetness in the background.

Draft. Blackish beer with a tan head. Tart/sour aroma. Sour, green apple flavor with acetic notes and dark malt backing. Medium bodied. Sour and green apples linger with acetic notes, caramel, and dark malts.

Large (3L?) bottle at Woodshop 5.0 (2/20/10): Pours a transparent copper mahogany with a spotty-lacing froth of beige head. Aroma of tart earthy cherries and some light caramel sweetness with some leathery funk. Starts with good fullness and an earthy chocolatey bitterness and smooth tart cherry and oak notes before a drier very oaky puckering finish. A nicely complex sour ale that should age well.

Sour as balls!! Reddish pour, light head. Aroma of vinegar, some wet toothpick and funk. Damn its sour. Mouth puckeringly sour.