Sante Adairius Rustic Ales Love's Armor

Love's Armor

 

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola, California, United States 🇺🇸

  Sour / Wild Beer Regular
Score
7.59
ABV: 8.1% IBU: 38 Ticks: 29
Love’s Armor is a blend of two complex, barrel-aged beers: Farmhouse Noir, a darker and stronger take on the saison style, and Chavez, our robust porter that we age on cherries. In the depths of this blend are full notes of chocolate and coffee, stone fruit and vanilla, with fainter wisps of tobacco, smoke and worn leather. A dry tartness pervades, providing an arena for robust interplay between malt-driven sweetness and microbe-induced funk. Deceptively potent and flavorful, Love’s Armor is meant for sharing, and will compliment the heartiest of meals. While shimmering now with flavors redolent of fine wine, encouraged to mature, Love’s Armor will reward patience.
 

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8.5
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9

750 ml bottle into tulip glass, no bottle dating. Pours lightly hazy very dark ruby red/brown color with a 2 finger fairly dense and fluffy light khaki head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty foamy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big sour/tart/tangy cranberry, cherry, raspberry, lemon, lime, peach, plum, pear, apricot, red/green apple, currant, red grape/wine, toasted oak, peppercorn, hay, straw, grass, caramel, caramel, brown sugar, spicy rye, and toasted bread; with lighter notes of chocolate, cocoa, coffee, tobacco, smoke, leathery/musty/lacto funk, red wine vinegar, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of fruity/funky/spicy/acidic yeast, wine barrels, and dark/rye/bready/light roasted malt notes; with big strength. Taste of huge sour/tart/tangy cranberry, cherry, raspberry, lemon, lime, peach, plum, pear, apricot, red/green apple, currant, red grape/wine, toasted oak, peppercorn, hay, straw, grass, caramel, caramel, brown sugar, spicy rye, and toasted bread; with lighter notes of chocolate, cocoa, coffee, tobacco, smoke, leathery/musty/lacto funk, red wine vinegar, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness. Light-moderate lactic tartness, Brett/oak tannin spiciness, and wine tang on the finish. Lingering notes of tart/tangy cranberry, cherry, raspberry, lemon, lime, peach, plum, pear, apricot, red/green apple, currant, red grape/wine, toasted oak, peppercorn, hay, straw, grass, caramel, caramel, brown sugar, spicy rye, toasted bread, light chocolate/cocoa/smoke, tobacco, leathery/musty/lacto funk, red wine vinegar, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Amazing complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/funky/spicy/acidic yeast, wine barrels, and dark/rye/bready/light roasted malt flavors; with a fantastic malt/tart/tangy/spiciness balance; with no puckering/astringent flavors after the finish. Fairly crisp finishing. Light-moderate increasing dryness from lingering tart/tangy/spiciness and carbonation. Medium-high carbonation and medium body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/grainy, acidic/tangy/tannic, and lightly chalky mouthfeel that is fantastic. Minimal warming alcohol for 8.1%. Overall this is an amazing barrel aged dark sour/wild ale. All around amazing complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/funky/spicy/acidic yeast, wine barrels, and dark/rye/bready/light roasted malt flavors; very smooth and easy to drink for the ABV, with the mellowly acidic/tangy/tannic/drying finish. Great soft feel for the style, mellowly lactic. Perfectly balanced Brett/Bacteria complexity, wine barrel presence/integration, and nicely rich malts. Light residual sweetness with crisp dryness. A highly enjoyable offering, and top tier style example. One of the best dark sours I've ever had. For being a blend with a porter, expected more roast; but they still nailed everything. I would guess the bottle was a few years old just based on how well balanced it was.

Tried from Bottle on 31 Aug 2019 at 20:50


6.6
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5

750ml cork bottle shared with friends at Muted Horn. Dark red-brown body, low fawn-coloured head leaving dotted spots on the glass. Smell of cherries and wood. Mid-tart taste of cherries added by a touch of chocolate. Long-lived ending, mid-tart and dry. Quite pleased with this one. (Berlin 11.01.2018).

Tried from Bottle on 21 Jan 2018 at 05:13


8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Thanks James for sharing the bottle! Poured into a wineglass showing lightly filtered coffee brown with sparse white foam lacing. The nose shows moderately tart notes of vinous red wine. The palate is light bodied and moderately carbonated. Moderately tart with subtle flavours of plum and light cherries. Very similar to Bruery’s Tart of Darkness.

Tried from Bottle on 20 Aug 2017 at 17:20


7.6
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

750ml bottle shared at Brian’s. Pours a dark reddish brown with a beige head. Aroma and taste are soury, roasted malt, barrel, some cherry and balsamic. Good stuff.

Tried from Bottle on 22 Jul 2017 at 21:21


8.3
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9

750 ml shared with friends, from trade with bytemesis. Thank you Mike!! Dark brown color with some red notes, nice beige head. Yeasty and light malty aroma, funky, barnyard notes, tart dark fruits, vinous, grapes, wood. Medium oily body with soft carbonation.

Tried on 27 Apr 2017 at 05:25


7.2
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Bottle, I believe probably late 2014, drunk 1/25/17.
Huge amounts of maize-hued head show strong retention atop a dark, mahogany-chocolate body. High clarity.
Fairly aggressively sour in the nose, with salinity, chocolatey roast, treacle and very light caramel. Dark cherry, lemon and strong lactic notes seem to be the dominant notes here and there isn’t a ton of depth, though the dark malts could be hiding a lot of the yeast/bacterial expression. No alcohol or flaw.
Very, very sour in the flavor with dark cherry, hard lactic and moderate acetic notes. Plum, prune, raisin and strong roast adding bitterness and dark fruit character. The body is malty, though at this point, quite highly attenuated and even though it provides a soft, malty texture, the sourness seems to have really come out strongly as the beer has aged. Clean, with a touch of sharp alcohol and other strong esters. Just a bit too sour at this point, but a nice beer nonetheless.

Tried from Bottle on 07 Mar 2017 at 17:53


7.9
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

Bottle at WTF 3. Pours a dark brown with small beige head that diminishes quickly. The aroma is oak, roast, dark fruit. Thin body, nice roast, funk, leather, very sour, really enjoyed this.

Tried from Bottle on 29 Dec 2016 at 18:43


7.5
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

750ml bottle pours out a amber brown color topped with a sand head. Nose is berries some chocolate sweetness and sour. Taste is more of the nice berries tartness a little chocolate rich malts.

Tried from Bottle on 11 Nov 2016 at 13:03


7.5
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

[1/30/16] Bottle sample at the Encomium bottle share, after RateBeer Best awards ceremony at Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel in Santa Rosa. Thanks everyone who shared bottles! Dark brown. Oak, cellar, funk, cherries, vinegar, sour, cobwebs.

Tried from Bottle on 12 Feb 2016 at 18:39


8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9

Bottle. Almost opaque black liquid with small to medium tan head. Aroma of light coffee, lime, grain, wood, lemon peel and pineapple. Taste is dry snd light bitter with notes of chocolate, lime and grain. Medium bodied with medium carbonation. Nice!

Tried from Bottle on 31 Jan 2016 at 12:22