Baladin Super Baladin Sour Edition

Pours a dark hazy amber/orange color with golden yellowish hues when held to a light source and a two finger frothy off-white head that slowly dissipates into a lasting ring. Sporadic spots of lacing. Sour tart funky aroma with hints of light fuit, mostly apple, pear and some cherry. Slight champagne yeasty effervescence, some candy sugar and citrus notes. Slightly tart and decently sour but not acidic at all. Hints of estery sweet fruit notes, namely cherry, strwberry and raspberry with some sweet citrus peel notes. Subtle hops. The sour/tratness is not very extrenme allowing for a lot of the other flavors to shine though. Well balanced and complex while still containing a good bit of funk. Don’t go in expecting it to taste like an authentic lambic or an American Wild Ale. Recommended.

Where the Wild Beers Are @ The Gate 8/30/09. The aroma is lightly sour, malty. The color is a hazy yellow, white head. The flavor is sweet, tart apple flavor. The finish is again sweet, lightly tart. Decent, if not great.

750ml Bottle (2005 Edition): Aroma of slightly tart fruit, funk, barnyard, fruit, slight bile, slight fruit, slight wood, and slight banana. Poured amber/orange in color with a small, fizzy, loose, tan head that diminished but lasted throughout as a film on top of the beer. Cloudy. Very sparkling. Full of tiny, small, medium, and large-sized particles throughout. Flavor is heavily sweet and slightly tart. Tastes of malts, light tart fruit, funk, light wood, apples, light citrus, slight hops, light cherry, and some more funk. Medium body. Lightly sticky texture. Average to lively carbonation. Funky, sweet, slightly sour, slight wood, fruit finish is slightly dry.

Where the Wild Beers Are @ The Gate 8/30/09. Hazy orange. Gum and wood aroma. Wood water sweet mildly sour soda flavor. Ok.

Aroma of sour fruit, apple and grape skin and some wood. Flavor is sour with some smooth malts. Not so super sour but pleasant to drink. Some tart fruit and juice.

Bottle: The aroma is very yeasty with a hint of sour apple. It pours a cloudy orangish-brown with a moderate white head. The flavor starts with lots of yeastiness with a moderate apple backbone. The finish has a light-moderat lemon tartness that realistically, is probably an infection, but it works. Medium bodied with mild carbonation and a soft mouthfeel.

A grandiose thanks goes out to mtoast for this special brew and for the locale! Had the pleasure of sampling this at the 7/9/2009 Pittsburgh RB tasting extravaganza (PGHRBEXT) at the Sharp Edge Creekhouse, again courtesy of mtost. It will be a long time, if ever I see a spread of bottles like I did there. I am not good enough for the beers that were that we served! For example, how about this beer; obscure super baladin sour 2005! Hart told me he found this at the pizza port bottle shop. Smells somewhat like a farmy lambic, yum. But not overly strong on the olfactory. Looks a little more darker than a pale lager, in the brownish vain. Sour and tart initial taste impressions. I see this is rated as a strong ale on the sight but I would put it more into the sour arena. Farmy flavors are evident. A little bitter, I guess from the alky content but it really hides the 8+% well. Fairly acceptable for a strong ale. Unique beer tasting experience that I was glad to have. Overall a decent sour beer with a slight wood and bitter background. Finish is lambic or sour ale all the way.

Another nicely obscure beer that showed up at the Pittsburgh area Ratebeer gathering. Sampled from a 750 ml brown bottle this beer poured a very murky orange color with lots of chunks and a trace white head. The aroma was faintly tart, sour and fruity. The flavor was tart, bitter and almost vinegary with a light fruity undertone. The finish was long, tart, bitter and fruity. Medium body. Decent.