Alpine Beer Company Chez Monieux

Brewed by Alpine Beer Company (CA)
Style: Sour Ale
Alpine, California USA

750ml bottle shared by Odeed; Nose is lightly funky with tart cherries, and oaky woodiness; Clear dark pink with a small pink-tinged head; Flavor was cherries, light tartness balanced by light sweetness; not very tart, would be better tarter!

Bottle in a trade. Pours a red amber body with almost no head. Cherry woodiness and a nice sour acid aroma. Flavor is tart sour cherry Wood maybe some brett and finishes very dry. Awesome beer.

Bottle from Joey @ SouthBay. Sampled this summer. Time has softened my initial experience which was not that pleasurable. I have warmed to sours, though, and would almost try this again. Full aroma of cherry and funk with flavor to match - lemon and yeast as well. The funk takes over the tartness and rather subdues the fruit; for me, the barrel is overtaken as well and this hurt my enjoyment.

Bottle w/ Simon. An easy drinking, mellow sour ale. Enough tartness to give it some character - soft and prickly carbonation. Very enjoyable from start to finish...would have liked to see a bit more funk/sourness shine through...but nevertheless, I finely done beer by Pat. The price tag would keep me from buying more of this though, too steep.

750ml bottle. poured a light red/pink color, short lasting white head that stays on the edges. Smells very sour and dry, salivary glands kick in everytime I smell it, slight cherry as well. pretty sour upfront, then diminishes very nicely. Not bad.

Bottle thanks to dirty martini, thanks for the hook up Larry! Poured a clear, light pink color with a thin white head that diminished to a ring. Aroma of tart cherries, funky brett, faint barnyard character, and a hint of oak. Moderately tart, funky yeast entry leads into a moderately sweet cherry flavor and transitions into a moderately tart, light barnyard funk with a touch of drying oak. Low carbonation, nice drying character. Overall, a solid effort from Alpine.

Bottle. Head is initially small, fizzy, off-white, fully diminishing. Body is hazy dark pink. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), lightly yeasty (barnyard), with notes of cherry, wood, and band-aid. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately acidic. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Light to medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation. Quite nice, cherries are not overdone thankfully, decent amount of sourness. Another cool example of American sour ale brewing. Nice to see this trend starting to offset the overdone DIPA and bourbon barrel trends.

Sample from a 750ml bottle. Pours clear pink (filtered? it’s not bottle conditioned, at least). Nose is soft cream, mellow lactobacillus prickliness, fruit note is tart but candied and resembles jolly ranchers without the extreme sweetness. Prickly and soft up front, medium frothiness, mild sourness, mild acidity, leaves a lasting dry tartness on the tongue. Good overall, I like it, especially the lingering dryness, but the rest of it, I like it but I’m not exactly sure why,