Mikkeller Raspberry Blush Berliner Wiesse

Here we are at the end of the sour road. Mikkeller Brewing has produced some fine sours to date and this is no exception. Berliner Wiesse is a traditional sour style, originating in Berlin. This style can be brewed with wild yeast, or kettle brewed. The grain is mainly wheat, with some barley. Raspberry Blush pours a pink grapefruit hue with a thin white-ish head. The tartness is mid-range, it might be a good introduction to sour ale neophytes. The main flavor is, naturally, raspberry, and oddly, coffee. I'm picking up some grapefruit as well. Not the most exciting sour, but fairly decent. 
 

Almanac Barrel-Aged Strawberry Sournova

The sour ale trek continues! With the cool temps coming, I'm going to have to switch to some Oktoberfests and pumpkin ales soon - but let's enjoy the sours for now! 

Let's start off the review by sating that I've never heard of this brewery, although with craft and micro breweries numbering in the thousands, even Ill-Gotten Booty can't keep track of them all. 

Over the last few weeks I have learned a new term: "kettle-brewed sour". This refers to a sour ale that is brewed quickly, sometimes in days, rather than the longer process of aging, including the use of wild yeast. Kettle brewing is an attempt to rush sour-style ales to market and to meet the demand, where the traditional methods supposedly can't keep up. Almanac Brewery derides kettle brewing and produces their sours the old-fashioned way, aging them in oak barrels using wild yeast. They have a complete line of "sournovas" with fruits. 

Oh yeah

Almanac claims on their website that Strawberry Sournova was aged for months using thousands of pounds of strawberries. It's not overwhelmingly tart, but has a mild sour intensity. Obviously the taste profile is dominated by strawberries, but I can detect just a hint of green apple and pear. They're not going for super-complex, just a good, drinkable ale.

They succeeded!