3.8 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 16/20
Glad I caught this special one-off at the Fullsteam Tavern. Pours a bright amber/copper, hazy with a big-bubbled beige head. Nose of dark fruits, yeasty bread, persimmons, wood, big acetic notes, and funk. Similar taste, but with a hugely acetic sour punch. This is what I’m talking about. Finally a brewery around here is making a truly sour beer. $8/9oz made me cough a little bit of the beer back out, and I shared it with everyone I was with, but hey -- they’re using the money to buy new equipment, and I turned a bunch of folks onto the goodness of sour beer. Win-win. And it tasted damn good. Win-win-win.
4 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 16/20
On tap at FS. Thanks to Sean for the heads up! I really enjoyed this stuff. Brown pour with a thin beige head. Served a little to cold but, once this warmed up a bit the complexities begin to shine. Aroma of acetobacter, fruit, and lacto/pedio. Peppery, acetone, fruit, acetobacter, and oak. Sour, astringent fruity and dry.
3.9 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20
UPDATED: APR 7, 2011 Description: "One-year-old First Frost aged on persimmons and a cocktail of wild yeast, back-blended with this year’s First Frost." Eight gallon batch.
Enjoyed on tap at the Fullsteam tavern on 02.18.2011.
Pours a deep burgundy, with a ring of white bubbles three (bubbles) deep lining the edge of the glass.
Immediately intensely fruity: red currants; sharp apple. As it sits (or perhaps, after tasting it), the nose calms down and I pick up sweeter notes of prunus fruit [apricot] assumedly from the persimmons in the newer batch of FF. Lots of acetic acid and fruity vinegar.
A tiny bit of butyric acid greets the tongue ("rancid" fruitiness), red wine vinegar, some softer berry notes. Lots of nice tart acidity. Some madeira sweetness on mid-palate, followed by a pungent tart and almost spicy end note likely from the fresher winter warmer. Nicely balanced, this works better than I thought it would and the fruit is really showcased more than in the regular beer.
Medium-bodied and attenuated on the higher side, though there’s some sweetness from the younger beer.
A nice showing, I wish there were more of this to go around. By and large my favorite Fullsteam beer to date. About the only thing I can say is that this might benefit from some oak-aging, but it drinks mighty fine the way it is. Even the lady friend, who normally can only drink a few ounces of sours, enjoyed a glass to herself.
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