Captain Lawrence Rosso e Marrone

Brewed by Captain Lawrence Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Elmsford, New York USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

Batch 3. Murky brown pour; hazy, golden hues. Strong oak barrel presence in the nose. Tart fruit, grapes, yeast, and cherries too. Interesting and complex taste: opens fruity and sour, strong barrel flavors in the middle, really nice blend. Mouth-puckering sourness. This is an intensely flavored sour, and it really grew on me as I sipped. Between this and CDC, I’ve become a full convert to the glory of Capt Lawrence. Not missing another release, that’s for sure.

Bottle. Aroma has notes of barnyard funk, horseblanket, urine, bretty funk, cereal malts, sweat and wonderful citrus sourness. Medium rusty brown hazy hue with a medium off-white head that mostly diminished and left no lace. Flavor is medium sweet and bitter and very sour. Palate is medium bodied and vinegary. Overall a wonderfall sour brew that rivals the best Europe has to offer. Tar, sour and citrus with a very well developed funkiness. Wonderful in every regard and a great example of the style.

Side by side tasting of batch 2 and 3 thanks to Doodler and bauermj. Thanks guys! Batch 2: It pours reddish amber/copper with a very small head that disappears. The aroma is intense of oak, berries, vinous grapes and lemony lactic acid. Very light hints of vinegar. The flavor is dry and very acidic with heavy accents of oak, lemon, tart grapes and toasty brett in the finish. Wow, this was really acidic. Throat burningly so, but not much acetic which is good. Overall, I give it a 4.0. I just love sours... Batch 3: Same pour as batch two with a slightly longer lasting head, yet it disappears within a minute as well. The aroma is also the same with surprisingly more depth to the toasty leathery funk. Interesting since this is a fresher batch. The vinous berry and grape aroma is more subdued taking a backseat to a stronger sharp lemony acid. Nice. The flavor is vinous and definitely less acidic than batch 2. More grapes and funkier in the finish with leather and horseblanket. Overall, less acid and more funk make this more drinkable than batch 2. I give it a 4.2 It was weird how the aroma was more acidic in batch 3, yet the flavor was more mellow. I split the difference between the two to give this an overall 4.1. Very well done.

375 ml bottle. Batch 2. Thanks for sharing Phyllis. Pours a cloudy brownish amber with no head. The aroma is big grape, some light brett, some caramel sweetness, and some lactic acid. The taste is sweet and quite sour. Big grape, some lactic and acetic acid, and a light brett funkiness. The finish is moderately dry with a bit of earthiness. Medium body. Low carbonation. It definitely could have used some more carbonation. Not bad, but nothing special.

UPDATED: DEC 12, 2011 batch 3 bottle. initial aroma is red wine barrel, chocolate covered raspberries, and a pleasant brown sugar apple crisp character. taste is bright sour red grapes, neat, unique, almost juice like purple grape character. some pleasant smooth creamy leather. touch of balsamic and oak. moderate-heavy sourness. dry. overall, a quite drinkable, complex tasty redwine, juicy cider, purple grape sour beer.

Batch 3 bottle shared by my man Rasmusott. The color is lovely on this one - blood orange red, but only the slightest amount of head - quickly dissipating. Aroma is very brett forward, musty, a very clear vinegary component like balsamico, cherries, lacto, lots of oak, a dried grape component like an Amarone wine, musry red wine barrel, slight hint of raisins. Lots of vanilla and a hint of acetone. The taste is nicely sour, lactic acid, cherries, funky brett, wine barrel, some stinging sourness, mouth-drying brett, tart white grapes, lime bitterness. Some elements remind me of Duchesse de Bourgogne, but this is more funky and acidic. Very nice.

Trade with Arminjewell. Aroma is huge brett, chrerry, oud brun’ish, red and green apples, vinegar, balsamic, sweet oak, black grapes, a sweeter winey quality to it, alot of wild funkyness to it and weak vanilla. So nice balance in the aroma. Taste is sweet and sour cherries, brett, lacto acid, wild funkyness, balsamic, sweet oak, tart, barnyard, some sweeter ripe fruits and some black grapes here aswel.

38cl, Batch 1, no mention of ABV, exclusive American brew, with red grapes, thx to Wimenels!, complex sour brew, woody/fruity and slightly vinous, balanced, cloudy, nearly no head, good brew, yet very expensive!