Thursday, June 19, 2014

Almanac Beer Company Dogpatch Strawberry

Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Almanac Beer Company Dogpatch Strawberry.

From the Almanac Beer Company website: “Swanton Berry Farm is nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Warmed by the summer sun during the day and cooled by humid marine breezes at night, Swanton’s fields grow some of the sweetest strawberries in California. We hoarded these magical berries and added them to our Dogpatch Sour ale before aging it in used wine barrels. This complex beer is our ode to the fertile coastal farmlands of California.

Farm to Barrel

Our Farm to Barrel beers focus on the eons old tradition of aging beers in oak barrels. This American wild ale was aged in used wine barrels for eight months. In the barrels we blended a classic Belgian-style red ale with local strawberries and a cocktail of wild Belgian and American yeasts, including San Francisco Sourdough starter. The yeasts slowly morph the beer from a traditional ale into something wild, creating a mild acidic bite as well as pulling oak and vanilla flavors from the barrel. After maturing, the barrels are blended back together—creating a vinous, delicate beer that captures a specific moment in time from our select Northern California Farms. Farm to Barrel Beers are alive in the bottle, and will continue to mature gracefully for up to 3 years.”
Let’s get started!
Appearance: Pours a hazy reddish amber color with a decent off-white head and thin sheets of lacing.
Aroma: Strawberry jam, citrus tartness, brett funk, oak and a slight vanilla aroma.
Taste: Tart, oaky and vinous, sour strawberry jam, brett funk and pale malts.
Overall: Almanac Beer Company Dogpatch Strawberry is yet another solid Sour in Almanac Beer Company’s line-up.  This 7.5% ABV offering is very refreshing, delicious and balanced. If you’re a fan of the style I highly recommend trying this one.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey

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