Tiiples Beer review #42 - A Sour night at the Alehouse Project

Anyone who has read any of my entries (and thank you to those few who do) would know that I’m a bit of fan of sour beer, those really paying attention would also know that I really like to drink at The Alehouse Project in the inner north of Melbourne, Australia. So when the Alehouse announced Sourfest, a night of 10 sour beers on Tap from two of the new world sour experts Almanac and Anderson Valley I was all up in that shit.

Why I soon learnt was that although one sour beer with refreshing, 3 is a flight of fancy, ten (even when sharing) is gets lead to conversations that begin with “I don’t think I want to drink anymore sours’

But lets get this show on the run, I’m going to tell you about six of them, not all ten, because, well I don’t always right notes because I just let out forget to/ to engrossed in conversation. First a note on the breweries. Anderson Valley are located about 150km north of San Francisco, they produce a wide range of beers, and speak a funny language (don’t believe look up Boontling on youtube). Almanac are also from Northern California, I assume they speak English, and they specialise in barrel aged sours – and do them very very well.

Two very red beers to start proceedings

First up was Alamanc Blueberry Ginger Gose -There is a movement I make when I drink really sour beers, it makes me look like a lizard trying to catch flies, this beer makes me do this - the overwhelming element is sourness, much like Dorothy from the Golden Girls. The ginger is certainly there in the smell, but not so much in the taste, there is a hollow blueberry taste in the end, all in all an interesting start to the night

Anderson Valley Framboise Rose Gose, which is quite a tongue twister, the beer itself is somewhat underwhelming, there is a sweetness in the smell coming from the Raspberry which is infused through there but the flavours are, the really not there in the sip, it's at the gentler end of the sour spectrum, probably would have been okay as an amuse bouche, but not in this company (I’m so impressed I just got amuse bouche in a beer review, that level 11 beer wankerism right there people)

Doesn't look like a G&T

Anderson Valley G&T Barrel Aged – maybe there are more gin and tonic falvoured beers than I think, this is my second one in a week. Some beers make me say “Oh” over and over again this is one of those. It smells like someone dipped a piece of pine in honey and tastes like it too - really very impressive.

Shouldn't a strawberry beer be more red?

Almanac Strawberry and Basil this is getting really interesting, it actually pretty gentle, with the sourness only coming through in the end, there is sweetness there from the strawberry and the basil adds, dare I say it, a herbaceous quality. All in all very interesting indeed

Quite the trip to bring us home

Alamanc Lavandrr and honey Saison with Brett I wasn't convinced when ordering this , because it was getting late and I was starting to get soured out but it actually a pretty good beer, it's a little farmy sure, and there is something in the tail that sticks but it's a really complex interesting beer, gentle refreshing, really good work.

Almanac Sangriaveza This is really a very good beer its complex as it should be as it four or maybe eight different beers (a red and blonde ales aged separately with graps, cherries, raspberries and blackberries), all in barrels and then blended back together and my god it's impressive the smell is blackberries the tastec hanges about 7 times through the sip, may make me fall in love with sours all over again.

So if you either Anderson Valley or in particularly Almanac beers around the place (neither should be that hard to find) then buy them, you will not be disappointed, and if you haven’t got into sour beers give one a try next time you are at a craft beer pub, but probably not ten, unless of course one of them is the Sangriveza, in which case just drink that over and over again.

And remember it’s #beersaturday time the awesome contest organised by @detlev – the full details are here: https://steemit.com/beersaturday/@detlev/whooot-5-steemians-get-paid-to-drink-beer-and-blog-about-this-isn-t-this-a-cool-challenge and remember to upvote my comment in the main post if you wanty to help me win the contest, or just below on this post if you are just like what you read.