Alpine Beer Company Ichabod Ale (2007)

Formerly brewed at Alpine Beer Company (CA)
Style: Sour Ale
Alpine, California USA

Growler fill from Alpine. Clear red copper with no head. Slightly sour aroma with notes of brown sugar, spice, and yeast. A great mouth feel and bright slightly sticky palate. The taste is fantastically complex and subtle: Sweet tangy almost citrus like initial taste followed by a quick taste of chocolate immediately replaced by a sweet spiciness and finishing with a nice combination of all the flavors with the addition of a rather nice and mild oaky dryness. I imagine it would be even better if it had a higher ABV, but excellent as is.

(bottle from Beerbill) Pours out a dark amber with a thick off-white head that lasts and leaves nice lacing on the glass. There are also abundant floating chunks of something that are present when held up to the light. The aroma is downright perfect and extraordinarily complex. The aromas start out with everything that should be there, such as the pumpkin, nutmeg and cinnamon, and a lot of barrel as well. As this warms however, the smell begins to move all over the place, with stranger scents of cracked pepper, sweet rice pudding, leather, wood finish, fresh paint, earth, and even a bit of orange zest. The flavor was not as complex as the aroma, but the tastes were great anyway, with just a hint of sweetness to begin with, that is followed by a really dry, salty, vinous, and tannic finish that lasts a long time. There’s a bit of pumpkin here also, but it’s subdued by the more prominent barrel character, and the spices are perceived upon exhaling. The sourness is relatively low on the spectrum for sour ales, but that really works well for this beer. Mouthfeel is medium and the carbonation is very lively. An amazing beer. Thanks Bill!

[Bottle, thanks Guerde!] Pours hazy orange with a small off-white head. Aroma is very nice. Pumpkin mixes well with the sour component. Fresh cut wood, rice pudding, leather, blackberry, paint, and slight alcohol. Taste is quite sour, lots of tannins, especially in the finish. Malt, very mild bitterness, and apple. Progression is sour, then pumpkin/tannins, followed by malt and spice. Medium thin mouthfeel, slightly dry finish that is long. Very unique and enjoyable beer that has a lot going on. Thanks again, Andy!

2007 PP SAF Bottle brought by DarkElf, thanks! : Glowing golden hue with a frothy head and okay lace. The aroma has notes of tart wine, oak barrel, nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin, malt-o-meal, and grassy hop.

WOW, a lovely sweet malt versus tart fruit balance with a complex spicy and almost gueze like funky finish. The barrel cuts straight through the malt and pumpkin with refreshing results. The mouth feel is lively, sprite, and dry.

What a big surprise, so different and quite the treat. I need to get a few more bottles of this from DarkElf.

22oz bottle from iowaherkeye. Thanks Joey. Poured a clear dark orange-brown color. The head was tall, fizzy, and dissipated quickly to a thin tattered film. Very attractive sour ale aroma that really got the saliva flowing. If there had been a dog in the room, I imagine he would have been drooling too. At first I smelled lots of red wine, cherry, oak, and vinegar. As time passed, however, the initially subdued brown sugar, pumpkin, and spices asserted themselves more. Wow. There was moderate to assertive acidity on the tongue up front accompanied by sour cherry and apple flavors. The acidity tapered off slowly toward the end but never fully abated. Some light malty sweetness mitigated the mouth puckering tartness somewhat toward the end and was accompanied by a cinnamon dashed apple pie flavor. I wasn’t sure how the whole pumpkin beer-sour ale marriage would work, but it turns out that they make a good couple.

22oz Bottle. Pours a light brown with red highlights. Smell is intense on this one. Sour funk, brett, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin and a nice red wine profile. Taste is nice and sour with a great yeasty quality. Red wine and oak first with a nice cinnamon, nutmeg and spicy dry finish. Good carbonation. This was something I did not expect from the crew at Alpine. This is right up there with the best of them.

This sour pours a medium orange color from a 22oz bottle. Small sized white foamy head. Aroma is fruity and tart, some spiciness. Medium bodied sour ale. The malts are nutty, pumpkinish and sweet. Yet there is a bunch of oak, some wine vinous ness and some funky tartness. Weird and wonderful beer, it’s a Belgian nut brown, pumpkin beer that’s got the funk. Nice balanced. Good carbonation. Nice. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and crisp. Aftertaste is slightly tart and funky.

SourFest II. Courtesy of Faro99. Copper color with a medium head. Spicy aroma of cloves and allspice. Very strong taste of pumpkin pie spices, with allspice standing out the most. Lightly tart.