Ithaca Excelsior! Le Bleu

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Ithaca, New York USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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Thx. to Rian / Thirstybird (still an awesome username). 75 cl. bottle sampled @ RBBSG 2012. Fancy bottle. Pours a bright fox red with no head. Smell is lots of sweet mashed blueberries with a lighter streak of lactic sour, light brett, lemon and sour green apples. Taste is bloody full of forest fruits, blueberries, soft mellow sourness, awesomely good, light sour malt leading into a light berries, lactic, brett, lemon, sour green apple ending, ending nicely tart. Rather full body for a sour but not full residual sugar or the bacteria not having cleaned it up, this is just fuller than usual, still sharp, clean, drying, yeah.

So I totally love this beer. Maybe even carnally. Because Le Bleu is a friggin’ masterful sour, subtly nuanced yet very distinct in all its multiple features. At no point does this beer overwhelm you with sourness or fruity sweetness or horsey funkiness or winey pretension. Le Bleu easily skates across your palate, leaving a tart, lemony swath of good infection at first. This sourness pairs perfectly with the addition of blueberries-- where the brett ends and the berries begin is a hazy amorphous blob, a unnameable, unshaped, but all too tasty result of waging bacteriological warfare upon hapless blueberry ale. The berries and the brett fade into postcoital bliss upon the finish, where they smoke cigarettes and sip red wine and contemplate their new living arrangements in your stomach. Le Bleu is no perfect beer; I guess, by definition, no sour or wild ale can be considered "perfect." But Le Bleu is close. Super close.

Bottle, thanks to Doodler, Scott is the man! Pours a lovely ink/orange colour, big, thick, gigantic rocky white head, which disappears like Houdini down to nothing as quick as a wink. Skim is thin but persistent, lacing is ropey, but solid, once you give it a firm swirl. Nose is super-tart, possibly the tartest beer of the night (following Panil Barrique, Nogne Tyttebaer, and Rodenbach Vintage 2007), blueberries are evident, as well as massive sweaty funk, soooooooo cheesy/creamy, almost smells like steak with blue cheese on top, plus blueberries and malt. Great nose. Flavours are again ultra-cheesy, notes of blueberry, spice, leather, sweat, horses and rhubarb... Goddamn! This rocks! If the blaeber knock-off is this good, I can’t wait to try the real thing!

UPDATED: APR 10, 2010 First, I love blueberry. The aroma is fantastic. The brett is evident, however the blueberry is prevalent but subtle. The appearance is a cloudy red and slightly blue amber and the head has a blue hue to it as well. The taste starts off with a standard brett sourness, but finishes with mild blueberry which is still mildly sour.

UPDATED: JAN 23, 2011
In short: Wicked sharp acidic fruity funky beer. One of a kind.
How: From the bottle at Extreme Beer Fest 2010. Many samples.
The look: Cloudy pink body topped by a small white head
In long: The nose is very bright with strong acidic notes, lots of funky barnyard and a pile of fruits (although not specifically blueberries). Taste is more of the same. This beer is sharp, very sharp. Pink grapefruits, blueberries, green apples, young green strawberries. Strong acidity/tartness, strong dryness, medium sourness. Lots of funk. The very lively carbonation turns this potential sipper into a highly refreshing brew that I’d like to drink by the pint. This beer rocks. An Ithaca staff told me this beer was three years in the making. Current 3.92 average is only that “low” because it is not made by a prestigious brewery. I can easily imagine the number if this was made by Lost Abbey. And that number is $45.

Thanks to jblauvs for this pickup. Another epic bottle in a lineup of epics. An albino blueberry sour for sure- peachy color with vast blueberry notes. Ultra dry vinous brett abounds, leaving a super dry and crisp finish. Loads of effervescent champagne like carbonation. Thanks Jamie!

Thanks to jblauvs for this one. Golden pour; the blue doesn’t come through in the appearance. Flavor is full of lemon, Bretty barnyard, with nice, well balanced blueberry notes in the middle of the flavor. Palate is ultra dry. Amazing sour brew!

750 ml bottle. pours a grapefuit color. sour aromas, you can really tell the champagne yeasts due to all the carbonation. All around great sour beer. Ithaca did a great job with this.

Bottle sample @ 2nd RBBSG, August 11th 2012. Courtesy of ThirstyBird. Couleur acajou, col fin blanc allant vers le rosé. Arôme est subtilement bien balancé et fruité, note de myrtilles est simplement divin, le tout sur une fini note aigre et brett. Palais, myrtilles sont bien là en belle quantité, le tout est aigre, acidulé frais et fruité avec ce piquant typique de baies, le tout laisse se léger pétillant/épicé qui titille la langue. Brett rajoute aussi une belle dimension, tout simplement bien fait et pour rivalise si pas dépasse certain grand noms belges. Pour moi, ceci est un des exemples de ce qui peut se faire dans le style.

Pours a dark pinkish color with a nice white head to it. Has a brett and blueberry smell to it. Up front it’s tart and sour with blueberry and brett mixing in hte flavor with the very lively carbination. Fantastic