One of the better products from New Holland. Oddly, some smoke in the aroma. Fruit and malt flavor. No hops preceivable in this beer. A little sour with yeast. Low carbonation.

Courtesy of BDR. Dark brown color with no head. Aroma of molasses. Lots of dry cherry and sweet malt flavor. A little light oak and vanilla round it out. Heavily carbonated.

A misty red pour capped with a lighty brown mocha-like foam. Mostly transparent, but deep-hued. Aroma of something like chocolate covered green apples. The sweetness has an earthiness and distant bitterness about it suggesting dark, mostly-pure cocoa, and the tartness is notably mild, like a granny smith or a green delicious, or possibly even a simple bartlett pear. There’s also a pleasant mineral character that leads the aromas into white wine-like dressings, but these aren’t as recognizable as they are to me in many blonde wild ales; it’s definitely there, but it’s not distinctly sauvignon blanc or guwertztraminer or something else. It’s plain, but orderly and complex; a thick tropical sunshine of mango and pineapple arrives in a flood after that mineral sensations have passed, without remittance, and rather impressively. And underneath all this there’s a healthy sweetness of cookie dough and dried cherry malt to anchor it; I’m quite surprised at the range I’m discovering here, and though there’s a bit of acetone toward the back, it’s altogether an impressive display.

Equivalently, the flavor is full of all these reserved subtleties, and it seems quieter to me in general. Dried cherries and pomegranate arils readily blend with the predominate apple and pear fruit characters, making them a bit more gaudy, and appreciably so. The minerally yeast components that recalled white wine in the nose are also consistently present, though because the malt flavors are somewhat punchier than expected, the mineral character is more of a steady, bitter airiness than an outstanding flavor. But it really works nicely to highlight the juicy flavors of the malts and of the spicy-sweet smoky vanilla impartation of oak, being so hidden but so obvious at the same time. The absentia of sourness is something off-putting, but the fleshiness of the cherry flavors is somewhat compensatory while leading it down a wholly different track; really more oude bruin than sour, but picturing it that way is not such a bad thing.

Palate suffers a bit from its quite brittle and bold extremity of carbonation; medium in body; finishing familiarly on cinnamon apples, red wine, and cherry skins. A whisk of sourness breezes in post-finish, but dries out into the remnants of those mineral yeasts too quickly for it to make an impression. While far from a challenging or groundbreaking, the construction of this very restrained sour ale is detailed and articulate, focusing full on the malts while the tepid yeasts take care to provide little nuances here and there. Still, the feeling that this is a simple and "safe" rendition of something more classical is inescapable. Thanks Derek!

Great Taste of the Midwest 2008
Very tart apple. Sour beer paired with chocolate. Oak notes, familiar sour flavor which I must admit I have trouble picking up subtleties/nuances with this style. Slightly overcarbonated. Decent enough.

Small sample from the bottle. Consumed during the New Holland beer and chocolate pairing at Great Taste of the Midwest on 8-9-2008. Pours a cloudy brown with beige head. Good, apple-y, sweet and sour aroma. Sourdough bread and lemondrop candy flavors. Light body. Fizzy in the palate. Overcarbonated.