Sierra Nevada/Russian River BRUX

Today I sampled something I've been storing in my fridge for about a month. After yesterday, I've been dying to give a Russian River sour another chance. Even though this isn't the same beer, I thought it might help with redemption. And I believe it did.

Sierra Nevada BRUX Domesticate Wild Ale - Collaboration with Russian River

BG Poured from a 1 pt 9.4 fl oz (751ml) cork & cage bottle into a stemmed tulip, 8.3% ABV

Bottled On 02/21/12 (yeah, 2012)

A Pale gold in color with a tiny light tan head that dissipates quickly. However, a thin ring of bubbles holds tightly to the edge of the glass. There’s a little bit of haze from the bottled yeast.

A Pears, sour apples, tart candy, brett, golden raisins, white grapes, lemon

T Fairly dry, little bit of funk that’s more like gouda than bleu cheese, lemon, green grassy notes, white bread crust, white cherries

M Light carbonation that tingles the tongue, light body

A Funky gouda, light malt

C I consider this a great beginners sour beer. It’s light enough to not offend, but holds enough character to familiarize the consumer with the traits of a sour beer. At the same time, it’s tasty enough for the experienced brett drinker, but also not high enough in alcohol (some are about 13%) to make you count your caps. In the craft beer world, there are quite a few brews that are either too rich or too high in ABV to have more than a few, but BRUX is an easy drinker and won’t put you on your keester.

FP White chocolate peach cobbler, three cheese pizza (gouda, mozz, muenster), soft pretzel

This particular bottle presented me with yet another hunt to decipher the date code. If you check on this great site that lists the key to figuring out date codes, you'll find it was actually bottled on 02/21/12. This picture should do the trick.

My bottle looks like this...

It's hard to believe this beer was bottled over 2.5 years ago, but that's what it says!