Draught at the Return of the Belgian Beer Fest, 9/17/16.
Pale, flaxen-gold body, again, with a light haziness and a med-sized, lemon-speckled white head with moderate retention.
Big citrus and sour acids in the nose show a good brightness and blend of lactic and light acetic notes. Finishes with strong lime-like brett notes and a grainy-to-biscuity maltiness replete with light honey and graham cracker. Don’t get much of the honey or honey fermentation character, but this thing seems pretty citrusy and sour, so that’s probably why. No alcohol or flaw.
Round, well-carbonated and fairly well-balanced between the soft malt, honey and souring acids. Maybe tends towards the sour end of the spectrum, but I think the texture is comforting enough, with vanilla-honey, graham cracker graininess and tons of bright citrus character. Lots of fresh, juicy pulp character from the oranges. Not overly complex or funky, but a very well-done American sour, nonetheless.

Draught at the Belgian Beer Fest, 9/17/16.
Lightly hazy, pale-blonde with some deeper golden hues and a medium sized white head with moderate retention.
The spices are quite prevalent, initially, with the lavender and chamomille adding big perfumey, spicy, floral notes atop light brett and lactic acids. Pepper phenols from the honey are strong as well and yet there’s enough malt behind it all to provide a backbone if not quite a full balance. No alcohol or flaws.
The sour/tart acids go hand-in-hand with the spices/herbs and there’s a light, sticky-sweet honey character in the background. At first I thought it was overdone with the herbal character but towards the end, it began to homogenize pretty well with a sour-herbal-grainy profile balanced by malt sweetness. There’s a strong apricot-nectarine fruitiness, as well that complements both the herbal and sour notes.

Draught at BA Return of the Belgian Beer Fest, 9/17/16.
Thoroughly hazy, bright maize-golden body is topped by a sizeable white head showing moderate retention.
Fantastic array of juicy AUS/NZ hops in the nose produces all sorts of pineapple, mango, guava, lime and what have you. Sour acids emerge, as well, adding light lactic character and soft brett funk, which matches the funky white wine and mossy limestone of the Nelson quite well. Seems nicely attenuated from the nose, with only biscuity malts behind it and probably some wheat. Wine is noticeable but melds very nicely with both acid, hop and malt/wheat; doesn’t dominate at all. No alcohol or flaw and just tons of juiciness to balance the sour aspects.
Juicy and quite tart in the mouth, with definite wine flavors but a good backbone of biscuity malts to (mostly) balance. Guava, pineapple, nectarine and meyer lemon for days, with a tight carbonation and malty, but well-attenuated body. Kind of reminds me of Grimm’s hoppy sours which are definitely an acquired taste. Maybe a slight surplus of acidity and I think the wine character could be dialed back some, but still pretty damned good stuff and very drinkable.

On tap at Foam Brewers aka (House of Fermentology) [side project of Foam Brewers].
They poured this into a teku.
The appearance was a glossy burnt pink almost ruby red grapefruit color. One finger white foamy head seemed to have been there forever, but that’s the pleasure of a teku, yeah well.
The aroma embraces the sour puckering white grape notes over fresh tart citrus rind. Sweet vanilla slides in underneath. Light woodiness.
The flavor starts off sour through the prior aromas and allows that vanilla to balance nicely. Slow sour moving to sweet aftertaste. Delicate sweet leaning finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a nice sipping quality about it. Puckering tartness hits a bit more than a fair amount of other American Wild ales that I have had. Still, that vanilla sweetness tries to blend and balance, does it? Hmmmm....not quite.
Overall, I love the concept and see a ton of potential in this beer but if only a tad bit more of that vanilla and I think this could be a wow beer.