Ithaca Vitus

Formerly brewed at Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Ithaca, New York USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

BCTC’08 as Vitus. Pours a murky brown color with absolutely no clarity. Aroma is sweet, strong brown ale with plummy malts. And then a very nice subdued fruit sourness. Taste has light acidity with a nice sourness and Welcher’s grape juice (in a good way). I really liked this, I though the malts of the brown ale gave a nice back drop to a decent sourness. Then the earthy dark grapes added a very nice dimension to the beer.

Labeled as "Ithaca Vitus," draft @ BCTC. Pours dark brown with crimson red edges and some tan lace. Nose of dark and red fruits with a bit of tartness from the brett. Flavor is heavily oaked, more dark and red fruits, some mild tartness. A bit too woody for my liking, but still a very nice sour ale.

BCTC. The Supplication to Brute’s Temptation, I say. This has an intense oak aroma with some nice underlying cherry. Grapey flavor with a calm sour is backed by a metric ton of oak. Mellow and lovely. This isn’t a smack you in the face sour, but it still works rather well. When these barrels have been used a few more times and lose most of their oak flavor this should really come together.

Labeled as "Ithaca Vitus," draft @ BCTC. Pours a dark, pitty red-raspberry color; light tan head with fine-bubbled lacing. Loads of dried dark fruits, cherries, and dust in the aroma; some fresh stemmy fruits and grassiness. Medium mouthfeel: light carbonation; dried cherries, light tartness; some dust and citrus notes; a touch stemmy and flabby in the mouth, though generous. Lengthy finish: tannic red fruits, ashy, and toasty malts; slight tartness.

UPDATED: APR 6, 2009 Stupendous and extremely unique. Who makes grape-flavored beer? There’s Midas Touch, maybe Lamvinus... help me out here. This and Kuhnhenn came right out of nowhere at EBF 2008 and were a treat. A very nice, bright flavor (grapes, as promised) that was pretty well balanced. Among the very brassy carbonated Belgian browns (not like Achel or Rochefort) this was almost like champagne. Very nicely done!