Double A Brewing: Autre Chose (Russia: Sour Ale: 8% ABV)
Visual: Darked apricot gold. A centimeter of bubbled head. Lots of small bubbled carbonation.
Nose: Horse blankets. Oats. Musty. Brown bread. Peppery. Cake sponge.
Body: Bitter almonds. Cocktail bitters. Brown bread. Tart apples. And cooking apples. Dust-ball bitterness. Cake sponge. Oily.
Finish: Dust-balls. Charred oak. Bitter nuts. Cocktail bitters. Tart apples. Sour apples. Oily. Dried apricot. Vinegar at back of throat.
Conclusion: This is quite thick and musky, with a lot of charred bitterness going on. It is oily, got a lot of nutty bitterness, resulting in a lot of savoury and hard edges notes in this apples based sour beer. Not what I was expecting and a tad rough.
So, ok, lets put that to one side and look at the rest of the beer. This opens up with that kind of horse blanket aroma that gueuzes so often have, giving a nice first impressions – however I will note that the rougher notes that put me off come in fairly quickly after with a rough grab bag of various notes. Ok, so I didn’t manage to put that element aside very long. It’s not my fault it is all over this beer.
I gave it some time to settle, to see if we could dig a bit more out and time brings a thicker cake sponge like body weight, that similarly gives the base apple character a bit more weight, which is pleasant. It doesn’t bring much range with it unfortunately – some apricot notes, with those fruit sugars, but generally it is fairly simple behind the roughness.
I want to like this, cognac aging is usually my jam, and French oak is generally interesting – and let’s face it, it is a sour beer from Russia, I want it to be fascinating. However it is rough edged, simple and with a kind of vinegar burn at the back of the throat. It feels like I am wading through all that to get at the elements that are more worthwhile.
Not my best introduction to Russian sour beer.
Background: This was picked up at the Arrogant Sour beer festival at the Moor Tap Room. It caught my eye as a sour beer that came out of Russia, something I have not encounterd before. Googling doesn’t seem to give much info on this, even when taking advantage of google translate, so is the best I could find out. This is a sour ale aged in French Oak miked with cider that has been aged in an oak cognac barrel. Interesting mix. Went with Gogol Bordello – Trans-Continental Hustle for background music while drinking.
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