No. 11 Apricot Sour.

Waxed and capped in he usual Ranger Creek Small Batch series manner. Thanks to Lee for the chance to try another Small Batch series beer. They’re generally very good.

I’m a little hesitant with American Sours. I drank this one shortly after Allagash’s Nancy, that I found horribly one-dimensional and frankly pointless (and this is from a brewery that I massively admire under normal circumstances). Happily, this one is very different.

Peachy, pinkish for with the usual lack of head and retention and lace. That’s OK.

There’s a real richness about this beer. It feels substantial, not thin (a dangerous trait amongst beers of a similar style), and it leaves an impression. The apricot is creamy distinguishable as the fruit, and the beer has a certain oaky sweetness to it that I like a lot. Sure the tart element is there, and indeed is really the major contributor, but there’s a significant sweet/sour thing going on and as I say, the beer feels unusually robust for the style.

Complex, there’s wood elements and some feeling of weed being that the beer brings. Feels like a beer for grown ups, with a sort of rounded malt flavor dancing in the far background. Really well done and it keeps true to being a sour but has so much more going on than just that. A little barnyard funk, some element of yeast and all held together rather well.

It’s probably gonna disappoint those people who (think) that they want a massive SOURNESS and that such a thing makes such a beer, but I’d strongly disagree with them. This is a beer with subtlety which of course, will pass over the heads of a lot of people.

Fantastic stuff.

09.02.13 Batch 01. Bottled conditioned, 375 mL.