Captain Lawrence Cuvee de Castleton

Brewed by Captain Lawrence Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale
Pleasantville, New York USA

Courtesy of BDR. Cloudy yellow color with no head. Light tart aroma. The taste is wicked... sour honey, wheat, and just enough dull hops to be noticed. Not mouth-puckering at all. Sublime.

750ml bottle, Batch 2. Thanks to GlouGlouburp. Pours slightly hazy pale yellow with no head. Smells of grapes and vinegar a bit of earth and straw as well. Tastes nice and sour with lots of grape flavor, good acid but not instant heartburn. A bit of hay flavor. Very nice, not to aggressive. Just a touch of wood, tastes like new oak to me. Medium body, good carbonation.

Batch 2 bottle shared by Crosling. Poured a bright straw yellow color with a thin white head that diminished to nothing. Sweet, citric aroma with hints of lemon, tart grapefruit, some light peach and a bit of funky yeastiness. Tart, moderately fruity entry with some barnyard yeastiness and a moderate lemon flavor with a bit of tart grapefruit and just a faint hint of oak. Low carbonation and a tart bite. I agree with Mes, definitely one dimensional, there didn’t seem to be any nuance or balance to this brew at all, it was just a lemon bomb with an awkward off taste. I didn’t detect any grapes, and the oak was faint to barely recognizable.

A Mes rate: bottle at the Harry vs Wolfman fist fight.
I have to be honest, this is not a good looking beer. A pale dirty yellow brown with a white head that vanished almost instantly. Full on lemon aroma, there is some excellent barrelly sourness and wooden notes but it’s completely overridden by the citrus. The flavour is similar. Just way too much lemon. To be honest, it’s a bit of a charlatan if you ask me. It’s just a pretty standard blonde with lots of tarty lemon added. It seems to be the only source of acidity and tartness. Even the dryness feels forced. The finish is excellent but it’s just lemon again. Don’t get me wrong this is a nice beer all round (apart from the looks) but it’s certainly one dimensional and rated far to high if you ask me.

Thanks to luttonm for the taste. Pours incredibly light - almost like a Belgian wit bier - with a small head that fizzles to nothing. Aroma is very tart, with lemon and grapefruit, and a little funk, too. Flavor adds some depth, with yeast - somewhat like a saison. The muscat grapes come through as well (those are fantastic grapes). Very tart - almost candy tart - but I can certainly see this being one I’d like better every time I got the opportunity to try it. A treat, for sure.

750ml (batch 2) thanks MaxxDaddy. Clean, champagne like pour. Looks, smells and first taste is of lemon juice. Utterly tart and keeps going far longer with the sour than most anything I’ve had. Crisp, strong taste of moist citrus and lemon. Dry, long finish with some yeasty/farmhouse notes. ’’Yesterday I woke up sucking on lemons’’. very nice

Batch 1, aged about 1.5 years. Courtesy Morgan from Great Orlando Beer Festival.

Holy Mother is this beer fantastic! The body is a cloudy, glowing, yellowish-tangerine color. A tiny white cap of foam recedes quickly to a swirly film, minimal, spotty lacing marking the glass. Tiny, effervescing streams of micro-bubbles pool into the surface of what otherwise might resemble some sort of tropical fruit punch.

This might very well be the best smelling beer I have ever come across. Fresh, tart, citric grapefruits, both ruby red and standard white varieties, take center stage. Ascorbic lemon enters the fold, followed by tart peach, sweet mango, and hints of orange peel. Signature French oak and mildly funky, wild yeast finish off the nose, which ultimately comes off as a beautiful hybrid of tropical Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat, and sour ale.

It’s hard to imagine a flavor that could match the sweet symphony of aromas that this beauty emits, but this one achieves it. Somehow, puckering tartness and fruity, tropical sweetness strike a perfect balance. There’s so much funky fruit going on here, it’s hard to take it all in. Sour grapefruit, sweet-tart peach, mango, Muscat grapes, and perhaps even some pineapple all shine. The barrel influence is just right, imparting a very wine-like feel to the end product, while the wild, funky yeast lets you know it is ale.

Ultra-fine, Champagne-like carbonation tickles the tongue ever so gently after each breathtaking sip. The light, vinous body is so refreshing, it is incredible. Dry, ascorbic, puckering and soft, this simply begs to be drunk.

Quite simply put, this beer is world-class. Period. Point blank. WORLD CLASS. Easily one of the best ales I have ever laid nose or lip to. I can hear Batch 2 calling out to me from the cellar, tempting me, daring me to drink it. It is taking every ounce of restraint I can muster to wait for the right time to crack that bad boy open.

Cloudy yellow color. Grapes, sour grapefruit and vanilla flavors are the most prominent with the Sour Patch Kid pucker-up goodness. This is my perfect beer...