Captain Lawrence Cuvee de Castleton

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

Tasted at Cleveland tasting on 8-23-08. Thanks!! Batch 2 was poured. Pours a cloudy yellow color with a off white head. Has a lot of citrus on the nose. Has a medium body. Taste is lemon, yeasty, crisp finish, and overall has a fruity finish. This is a nice brew. Perhaps not as good as what I’ve tried so far this tasting. But it can stand alone on its own as a solid sour.

Batch 2, via trade with JoeMayo on BA. Pours a murky yellow- gold color, capped with a small off-white head and effervescent body. Aroma is musty and lactic, with notes of white grape, lemon, oak and some wild yeast. Flavor is as complex as the aroma, with white grape, lemongrass, citrus, wild yeast, and some oak. Long, moderately tart finish. It’s not as lactic as some other sours, adding to its drinkability. I had this with a variety of cheeses, and it nicely complimented nearly all of them. The active carbonation seemed to clean the palate. This is a beautiful beer; I need to get more!

Bottle shared with emagee’s 1,000th rating. Thanks, Ethan! Light, bright golden color. Very slightly hazy. Nose of muscadine, lemony-citrus, lemongrass, apricots, peaches, floral notes, and a tart yeastiness. More bready/yeasty on the palate than expected, losing some of the fruit tartness, but still very good with a dry crisp finish. Delicious.

Shared by that dude below, on his 1,000 rating. Thanks, Ethan! Smells a bit like finger? Oh wait, that’s the wrong rating. The pour reminded me almost of a gueze, insofar as it was much more bright and clear than expected. Champagne-like carb for sure, with a lovely head. Dry and oaky aroma comes across initially, quite inviting. As you get into the beer, the muscat grapes are everywhere, not in an overpowering sense at all, but in a nicely suffused, well integrated sense. Light floral notes in there to balance things out, and it’s got a deliciously dry finish too. Very fine, and big thanks again to Finger Man.

Thanks to hophead75 for this one. Andrew graciously traded me one of his two bottles for my 1000’th rating. Here goes. Pours a very bright clear pale yellow. Has very large carbonation and sits effervescent in the glass, very champagne like. The head was kind of profuse but subsided very quickly and very loud. The nose was very prominent with white muscat grapes (and hand), a nice tart fruitiness that isn’t overly prominent, very yeasty and a soft oakiness. The flavor is very vinous, spicy oak, yeasty, the tart/sour character isn’t dominating and plays a nice complimentary role in the beer. The grapes and spices show also show well. Very lively and exciting mouthfeel, the carbonation is very tactile and the overall body of the beer does not disappoint either. Overall, this was a great sour and its individual aspects melded well rather than any one dominating. Just what I like in a sour, balanced complexity.

I hope nobody minds this placeholder rating for the purposes of the DD Top Ten list accuracy. l’ve got a real rating somewhere, and l’ll enter it one of these days, but for now l hope it’s enough to say that one of the bottles I had of this was one of my favorite beers of all time. Batch 1, because of its incredible tropical fruit medley. Batch 2 unfortunately doesn’t come close, for me. Yet.

Rating #1000.

I’ve been saving this one for a special occasion, and rating #1000 seems as good an occasion as any. It opens with a puff and begins slowly gushing foam until I pour it out hazy and golden, with more large clumps of orange-ish floaty material than I would like to see. Fascinating nose: the muscat grapes come on strong here, lots of passionfruit and some pineapple, golden raisins. Flavor like scooping passionfruit seeds out of a fresh fruit that has been drizzled with lemon juice, quite strongly acidic but not overly so. And then chardonnay-like oak and grapes adding complexity, plenty of sweetness (but not enough to make this a sweet-tart sour) to keep things diverse. It took my palate eight ounces or so to adjust relative to the dry, minerally, lactic beers I’ve been drinking, but now that I’ve made the switch this one is really coming off as very good. Unfortunately, as it warms there is this rancid mandarin orange thing going on that is not a virtue, and near room temperature that almost dominates. . Light and refreshing (though never watery) on the tongue, great lemon close. It’s a very different beer from sour gems coming off the West Coast, but once one puts those expectations aside this thing is an artwork in its own right.

Batch 02 at RBSG. Pours hazy golden with a white head. Great perfumy aroma of citrus and lemon rind. Starts off with tart citrusy flavors, and has more white grape and peppery wood flavors mid palate. This acidity is just right for me. Not being overly acetic or lactic on the finish makes this one easy to drink. Overall this is well-balanced and stellar brew. Ross probably thinks I should not rate this one either since I did not drink it straight from the storage tank.