Heavyweight Ch-Chuck

Formerly brewed at Heavyweight Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Ocean Township, New Jersey USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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Deep mohogany in color with slight head and lace. Medium nose of wet horse blanket, sour notes but not like a Lambic more like a Flemish brown. Rich and sharp tartness then a quick balance of malty sweetness. Not a huge complexity with beer, but I would session on it.

Murky red-brown in color with a lacey head. Smell of sour cherries, then a bit of alchol. Nice mellow tangyness.

UPDATED: AUG 27, 2007 750ml. bottle. Murky brown color with a small tan head. Beautiful aroma of tart cherries, horseblanket, oak, band aids. Flavor was quite mild, and not as "bretty" as the original Chuck. Still had nice funkiness though. Cherries, oak, wet leather with a nice tart finish. I wish I had another bottle of the original Chuck, because every time I sample some I like it more and more. I just never have enough to rerate fairly. Having said that, I like Ch-Chuck much more than the original. It is so easy drinking and tasty that I feel like opening another bottle right now.

I’ve been told to look forward to this interesting beer...let’s see...sour and very yeasty nose, nearly like a lambic ale, but with light caramel notes too. Looks nice, with a thick, dark brown body and a tiny bright white head. Very, very strange flavor - much more like a Flemish sour ale rather than a brown ale, that’s for sure! As mentioned by other ratebeerians, very musty and earthy is a good description. I’m not sure, but I think that this one will grown on me over time. It’s a little off-putting in the beginning, though,. so I have to lower the flavor rating a little bit, which I may revise in later tastings. Smooth and tangy finish. "Interesting" is an understatement.

For a while, I viewed Heavywieght as an above-average brewery with some solid offerings. However, after trying many of their OTOP beers (especially the saisons), I now place them as one of the top five most innovative brewers in the country, possibly the world. This beer just solidifies that opinion - for a long time, I didn’t even know what "brett" was, let alone know how to identify the flavors it produced - now that I know, I must say that the brett characteristics are really quite prominent, yet not overstated in this beer - the sour cherry flavors aren’t quite mouth-puckering enough to equate this with a true "sour ale," but it does lend a lambic-like quality - oak and vinous notes weave in and out - musty and very earthy - sourness drops out in the finish, leaving a touch of chocolate and spices, along with a flavor/mouthfeel that I can only describe as "milky" - this is one of the most interesting beers I’ve had in a long time - very subtle - take some time with this one before you judge it.

750ml bottle-pours a foamy, dissipating, tan head. Cloudy orange-red color. Aroma is cherry, malt, achohol. Taste is cherry, vinegar, oaky, white wine. Texture as it goes across the tongue is resin-like. Similar characteristics to Rodench Flemish, which is an acquired taste.

750 ml bottle. Hazy and ruby brown. Spices and cinnamon, raisins and cherries. Tart.

12.11.05 750ml bottle, sampled from three different bottles so far. The stuff is a dingy brown honey color with a small and quickly fading beige head. Aroma is only a bit funked up with mild hay and horseblanket, rotty old shed floor, rotting fruits, sweet cherries and felled apples. Flavor is mild and completely mellowed from the original, super-bretty, Chuck (as Cornboy mentioned). The beer, now an intricate and brooding thing, hides behind a guise of simplicity. Wan bittering replaced coolly with subtle oak and cherry notes, the whole fruit, old and wrinkled. This is not the viscious afront of a venerable La Folie or even the more timid Panil Barriquee. This is as much dancing in afterthought as tempting the buds for a sequel. Dusty cobwebs list in cold autumn breezes, libertine earthtone of frosted and fallen fruits.
The beer could beer more complete, although it is wonderfully complex. The lack of a staunch malt constitution that was so expertly hidden behind sweet brett in the original is now exposed through the worn wood of the barrel. It could stand for something extra, allowing the beer more potential for aging; I do believe the stuf will improve with time. As it is now, the body is fair with a drying, dusty astringency that arises mysteriously, the beer is not so acidic. Acidity does come softly into play as a tart fruit that lingers long after the finish. Really lovely stuff, a beer that demands more than a small sample. And my impression of it is improving with each sip.

What a treat from HW, barrel aged Chuck. These beauties are aged in a barrel for 6 months with sour cherries. What a difference over the original Chuck. The brett is tamed a bit by the barrel aging, the cherries while adding tartness take away a bit of the funkiness. Regular Chuck without a doubt is the champion of brett, almost like cheese in a bottle its so far out there. The mellowing from aging brings it back to earth. Tart up front, some of the funk working its way around, just starting to pucker but doesnt quite get there. Finish with mellow sour cherries just to remind you to fill up your glass again. Outstanding

Had this one at an open house at the brewery. First, let me say that I love Heavyweight brews, and have always been impressed with their consistent quality and daring styles. That is why it pains me to say that this beer is just horrible. It smells like cheese, feet and cherries and tastes about the same. I’m not a big fan of sour ales, but, even so, this missed the mark. Luckily, you can be sure that Tom will brew 10 amazing new beers to make up for this one.