McKenzie St. Romain

Brewed by McKenzie Brew House
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Glen Mills, Pennsylvania USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

Wood sour notes vanilla windy notes caramel green apple. Smells like the description. Pours reddish amber thin head. Definite barleywine caramel apple wood sour funky yeast Lacto tartness. Wood floors linger. Carbon is low. It is what it claims to be. Not bad at all. Solid stuff.

Bottle number 9 of 144 courtesy of yourefragile at last night’s barrel-aged barleywine tasting. Served in a SAVOR snifter. Disclaimer: this bottle was flat but we force-carbed it to a low volume. Bottle is reviewed based on that, though the flat version didn’t suffer too much against the slightly-carbed version. Pours a smooth toffee color with virtually nothing other than a few bubbles that pop up. No head to retain, nor was there any lacing. The nose brought forward a nice level of complexity with notes of oak and vanilla in the background, paired with a good dosing of caramel. Atop all of that is a slight sour twang and quite a bit of red-wine character. The flavor keeps things going with a prominent red-grape bite plus oak and very light acidity. Some tannins. The oak and red wine add beautifully to the feel of what seems like would otherwise be a pretty decent barleywine. Like the experimentation here. Glad to have tried this.

Bottle 28 of 144 thanks to Jaxson. Pours reddish amber. Very clear. Nose is candi sugar, lightly tart vinegar and caramel toffee. Taste is a bit off - some plastic notes mixed in with blood orange peels and a sticky barleywine (caramel toffee and some candi sugar mostly). Mouth feel is almost completely dry. Vinegar feel, but little tartness. Interesting experiment, but this is the first beer from them I didn’t like. The others I had were much better.

Bottle shared by Kan. Pours a murky orange with a bubbly head. aged dirty malts in the aroma some sour and dough. Tart bitter dough fruit lactic tangerines and bitter. kinda terrible. 6/3/3/2/9

(GABF 2010) cloudy gold orange pour, Nose of brown sugar, bugs, caramel, right mix of barleywine and sour here. Taste of sweet brown sugar, toasty, vinous, mild alcohol, bourbon and oranges. Awesome, tons of barrel and love the sweetness. This is how a sour barleywine is done!

A-pours a hazy amber orange with a still body and a complete lack of head. S-the nose is of oak and light berry fruits. there are vinous aspects in there with some soapy hops in the back. T-flavors are oak and red wine up front, vinous aspects with sweet caramel malts and light notes of bitterness as a lingering sugary malt hangs around in the finish. M-meduim body and creamy on the mouth with an aggressive carbonation and crisp bite in the finish. D-different and interesting, barrel imparts a lot of flavors in this adding oak and vinous aspects. there is a good bit of sugary sticky malts in there to balance.

Still transparent tan-red, large white bubbles after vigorous pour. Bit burning acid, light honey and caramel with a bit of berry nose. Flavor similar, bordering on nail polish, also pomegranate seeds in finish, odd light bitterness, almost no carbonation. Light the sweetness and wine shooting in and out, but lots of mess on the edges.

Bottle shared by Kan, thanks! Poured a hazy earthy brown with a white head that started at the edges and dissipated completely. Aroma had a note of lemon cookies with some tart citrus, and sweet grains. Flavor began with an odd combination of sweet grain, cookie and sour citrus with a bit of caramel. Beer was a bit under carbonated.