Tasting Day: Barn-Cat Black Sour Stout

Work has been tough sledding lately.  I rewarded my accomplishment of the day (finishing Wednesday) by cracking open the 3 month old sour stout.  I really want to check in along the way to see what this beer is doing in the bottle.  Here is my quick recap:

One month in bottle:  It was way better than it should have been.  Setting expectations pretty damn high.

Two months in the bottle:  It was all over the place.  The fresh stout flavors were really competing with the sour flavor.

Three months in the bottle:  More calmed down.  Still has some abbrassive qualities but they die out after the beer opens up in the glass for a bit.


The good news is that its getting better and I can tell that the beer is starting the meld together better.  After the three sip rule - the rule where someone must take three drinks of a sour beer before truly knowing what the beer tastes like - this beer is really, really good.  The first two and maybe even third sip are tougher than they should be.  You get punched in the face with acidity and some funky roast flavors.  You know you are drinking an American sour.  It let's you know what it is right up front.

As the beer sits and warms up a bit in the glass that abbrassive bite fades and it becomes a great sipping beer.  The sour, tart and slightly tar-like bite form this weirdly refreshing beer.  I kept going back for a sip quicker and quicker.

I drank a full 750mL by myself in a pretty short amount of time.  That right there shows that there is something in this beer.  I plan to crack one more before the fall to see how its doing. My friend who introduced me to sours needs to come out and have one soon just so he can see how it is doing.  He has heard me talk about it for over 2 years now so I think he might deserve a glass or two.

After that bottle is done I am going to sit on it until stouts are back in season - let's say September or October at the earliest.  I will plan to drink one a month to track the progress until I have one left.  That one will sit for a long time.  I want to see how it lasts over at least 2 years in the bottle.

I am going to bottle the Blackberry Barn-Cat Black Sour Stout later this month or early June and start tasting those around September or October as well.