Cherry Sour Ale
Beardslee Public House, Bothell
Style: Kettle Sour
Stats: 5.2 percent ABV, 14 IBU
Available: On tap at the brewery
Our thoughts: Having made a kettle sour Gose with Elysian’s Kevin Watson as part of the Pink Boots Society earlier this spring, Beardslee’s Paige Zahnle used that knowledge to help create this sour ale with Beardslee head brewer Drew Cluley.
There are a ton of cherries grown in Washington, so Cluley and Zahnle connected with Olmstead Orchards in Grandview to get 280 pounds for this beer. They hand-crushed them, added them to the beer after fermentation finished and let it age 11 days.
Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to Beardslee to try the Cherry Sour Ale, so I had to trust the taste-buds of a friend and fellow beer nerd, David Krueger. I’ll let him describe the experience:
Beardslee’s Cherry Sour is a fragrant beer that has the cherry immediately hit your nose and taste-buds. While you might pucker after the initial sip, the tartness mellows, leaving you refreshed and ready for another by the time you find your glass empty. The cherry taste lingers on the palate, leaving one of my “co-tasters” raving that the beer was “cherrylicious.”
It is a great choice for the experienced sour aficionado, as well as someone looking to dip their toe in the sour beer craze.
From the brewery: This seven-barrel batch was made from 280 pounds of hand-crushed organic Washington Bing Cherries from Olmsted Orchards. This fruity pink elixir is deliciously light and crisp, very lightly hopped and a refreshing summer thirst quencher.
Follow Aaron on Twitter to follow along with his Oregon beer adventures over the next week.
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