The Rare Barrel

Microbrewery in Berkeley, California, United States 🇺🇸
Owned by Cellarmaker Brewing Company
Associated Venue: The Rare Barrel

Established in 2012

Contact
940 Parker St, Berkeley, CA, CA 94710, United States
Description
Picture yourself eating a handful of red raspberries, drinking a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade, or sipping on a glass of fine wine. Those sour, tart, and acidic flavors you are currently imagining are what makes sour beer taste quite different from traditional beers. These flavors, which are unique to sour beers, are the product of time and the right mix of microorganisms. While our sour beers age in oak barrels for an average of one year, a blend of microorganisms will shape the sour, tart, and acidic flavors that we’ve come to desire. Yes, sour beers take an exceptionally long time to develop, but we think that sour beers are well worth the wait.

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7.6/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 7.5
On tap at ChurchKey. Pours hazy gold with a white head.Tart fruit, coriander, oak, some saltiness. Nice.
Tried from Draft on 21 Jul 2019 at 16:20

5.8/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 4 Flavor 6 Texture 8 Overall 5
Tap. Pours lightly hazy golden, small white head, some lacing. Aroma is full of cucumber, watermelon, pickled rind. Flavor is light tart, heavy watermelon. Medium body, spritzy carbonation. Not it.
Tried from Draft on 21 Jul 2019 at 02:55

8.2/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 10 Overall 8
Vintage tap. Pours lightly hazy golden apple, small white head, bubbly lacing. Aroma is oaky, bugs, lemon, bit of a geuzey sweat sock thing, basement, hints of stone fruit. Flavor is medium tart, medium funk, geuezy. Medium body, soft mouthfeel, low carbonation. Excellent
Tried from Draft on 21 Jul 2019 at 02:35

6.5/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 6 Flavor 6 Texture 8 Overall 6
Tap. Pours hazy golden, vanilla, lactose, pineapple, guava. Flavor is light plus tart, light bitter, lots of vanilla. Medium body. Eh
Tried from Draft on 21 Jul 2019 at 02:31

5/10
Tastes way better than it smells, smells like Brett gone wild, way way way wild. Overblown. Riot of the year. Millions dead. Brett butt. Brett won. Tastes like orange medicine. Unlucky night.
Tried from Bottle on 18 Jul 2019 at 23:38

7.6/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 6 Overall 7.5
750ml bottle at Matt's. Appearance: hazy golden with a white head. Aroma: botanical notes, sweetness, oak. Taste: similar. Overall: pretty good.
Tried from Bottle on 18 Jul 2019 at 04:45

7.5/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 8
Sour notes and a touch of pear. Cloudy gold with a decent white head. Sour stone fruit and nice fruity notes. Sour, but balanced with nice herbal and botanical notes.
Tried on 18 Jul 2019 at 04:44

6.4/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 6 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 6.5
750mL bottle, pours a cloudy golden with a small white head. Nose is full of bad gin, acetic acid, and intense pear skins. Flavour is loaded with spicy prickly pears upfront, with gin-like botanicals, and perfume. It's an odd one, certainly not an elegant beer. Good.
Tried from Bottle on 18 Jul 2019 at 04:42

7.4/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 8 Overall 7.5
Dull tan, no head. Bit of haze. The aroma is actually really big gin barrel, some lime, not really getting the prickly pear. On the palate, there is a touch of sweetness, but also a decent tartness in the finish. Again, a good lime character. Still fairly sour, but decent balance and complexity. I think what I'm perceiving as gin barrel is really the lime zest.
Tried on 18 Jul 2019 at 04:40

9/10
Tried from Bottle at Other Half Brewing Company on 13 Jul 2019 at 08:21