The Rare Barrel
Microbrewery
in
Berkeley,
California,
United States 🇺🇸
Owned by
Cellarmaker Brewing Company
Associated Venue: The Rare Barrel
Established in 2012
Contact
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.
6.9/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
Oak and funk. Cloudy gold with a decent white head. Soured stone fruit and some funk. Not salty, no coriander, not really a Gose.
Tried
on 11 Jul 2019
at 04:02
6.8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6
750mL bottle pours a hazy golden with a small white head. Aroma brings out light coriander, with salt, gently sour fruits, lacto and a hint of oak. Flavour is very tart, with lots of oak , tart stone fruits, salt, and citric acid. Quite acidic and not really gose-like. It's alright.
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Jul 2019
at 04:00
6.9/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Tasting at Salesforce, bottle; 6.1% ABV
Cloudy blond colour with a touch of orange. Nice fruity character, moderate acidity, but balanced by some tiny sweetness, dry finish with astringency, a bit dirty.
Cloudy blond colour with a touch of orange. Nice fruity character, moderate acidity, but balanced by some tiny sweetness, dry finish with astringency, a bit dirty.
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 Jul 2019
at 08:17
7.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
750ml bottle pours out golden topped with a fizzy head. Nose is nice big tart pucker notes a little pear and citrus. Taste is more of the nice tart sour citrus notes a pear bite.
Tried
from Bottle
on 07 Jul 2019
at 23:31
8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 9
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
9-3-8-4-15
Bottle, vintage 2018, shared with Inbreak and friends. Pours translucent maroon, with a finger thick, creamy head. Aroma is lactic acid, tart fruity notes of raspberries, musty fruits and minerals, as well as wine grapes, tannins and wooden barrels. Medium to creamy body, with soft carbonation. Flavour is lactic notes with tart fruity notes of raspberries, musty fruits, shrubbery and minerals, as well as berries and wooden barrels.
Bottle, vintage 2018, shared with Inbreak and friends. Pours translucent maroon, with a finger thick, creamy head. Aroma is lactic acid, tart fruity notes of raspberries, musty fruits and minerals, as well as wine grapes, tannins and wooden barrels. Medium to creamy body, with soft carbonation. Flavour is lactic notes with tart fruity notes of raspberries, musty fruits, shrubbery and minerals, as well as berries and wooden barrels.
Tried
from Bottle
on 07 Jul 2019
at 13:42
Tried
on 06 Jul 2019
at 15:58
8/10
Mango, passion fruit, oak, citrus, unripe apricots, wild funk, light sulphur. Not a bad wild ale! 4.1
Tried
from Bottle
on 05 Jul 2019
at 22:14
7.2/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
04.07.2019, 0,75l bottle (2018 vintage) shared with friends @ home:
Soft gusher. Nice fizzy-creamy mediumlasting head. Aroma is slightly dry sour-ish fruity, sour raspberries, grass, hay, minerals, oak, berry skin, heather, bark, raspberry candy. Taste is dry sour-ish fruity, grass, sour raspberries, bark, minerals, fruit stones, hay, berry skin, oak, roasted malts, citrus, raspberry candy. Medium bitterness, slightly watery and dry sour-ish fruity mouthfeel. Nice enough.
Soft gusher. Nice fizzy-creamy mediumlasting head. Aroma is slightly dry sour-ish fruity, sour raspberries, grass, hay, minerals, oak, berry skin, heather, bark, raspberry candy. Taste is dry sour-ish fruity, grass, sour raspberries, bark, minerals, fruit stones, hay, berry skin, oak, roasted malts, citrus, raspberry candy. Medium bitterness, slightly watery and dry sour-ish fruity mouthfeel. Nice enough.
Tried
from Bottle
on 04 Jul 2019
at 20:41
7/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Soured berry. Cloudy peach with a decent white head. Stone fruit and a bit of aspirin.
Tried
on 04 Jul 2019
at 04:01
6.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
750mL bottle, pours an opaque, murky, filky, dark orange with a small white head. Aroma brings out lots of tart plums upfront, with spicy prickly pear, and a little oak. Flavour is rather abrasive, with tart plums, spicy pear, some oak, and intense acidity. As usual, very puckering and palate-destroying. Spicy and puckering. It's alright, but as usual, not super impressed with Rare Barrel.
Tried
from Bottle
on 04 Jul 2019
at 03:44