Captain Lawrence Cuvee de Castleton

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

Sampled at HotShotz Indy tasting May 24, 2008 - Aroma is spicy yeast, lemon, oak, white wine, apple and ripe melon. Pours cloudy yellow with a ring head and decent lacing. Flavor is very similar to aroma with a great sourness added to it. Citrus, oak, spice and wine. Palate is tart but clean. Super smooth and tasty, I could drink this everyday.

Thanks for bringing this to the tasting sprinkle. I got an end pour, so my sample was pretty cloudy, it is easy to arouse some head, err... White wine grapes in the nose, the label says Muscat. You know it will be sour from the smell. And it is, more acetic than the aroma led me to think. Great wine flavors, the oak is soft. Mouthfeel is soft, although well carbonated, the bubbles are small and tight. I could easily polish off a couple bottles this was easier to get.

A 750 ml bottle (batch # 1) to celebrate our 10th marriage anniversary. Blonde, no head, cloudy. Grapes, traubenzucker, leather and lemon in the complex aroma. Muscat grapes, oak, grapefruit and lemon in the sour flavor. hardly any rest sugars, just dry, tart and fruity. oak especially noticeable in the vinous finish. I just love this brew, however Diane took a few sips and emptied a glass of water immediately afterwards. Thanks, Dickinsonbeer, for this very special beer!

750mL Bottle. Batch Number 1. Wildly complex nose. Lavender and pink peppercorns immediately come to mind. Dry oak is definitely present. Somehow I’m transported to the Sycamore canyons of southeastern Arizona. Musky and fruity. Complex and unique. The beer pours a raging, lightly hazed golden. Prickling with carbonation and producing a white head that behaves weirdly. It holds at first and then subsides quickly into the beer, leaving nothing behind. Clean. At first, I’m mulling on these flavors and wondering why this is so highly regarded. Is my palate missing the boat here? I give it time. I mean, it’s a vibrant, brightly flavored fruity dry beer, with unique character and nice acids. The grapes are what really end up doing it. There is certain white grape fruit juice, but it’s more refined. In a white port kind of way. A bit of apple juice takes me to the vineyards of Switzerland and I imagine the sun is warming my face. This is a really interesting beer. Lightly sweet, with apple juice and white grape character, showing an oaked finished and very clean acids. Mature and refined. I would never expect a beer to really behave this way, like wine. And maybe that’s why I’m struggling with it a little. This may have crossed the line for me a little bit. My second pour from the bottle is insanely cloudy. The first was brilliantly clear. The carbonation must have brought a lot of yeast up. The beer develops some more softness, light spice and general fruitiness. White figs play a role at this point. This beer is refreshing and delicious. There’s a harder-to-describe vibrant fruitiness riding over the top of this beer that I can’t quite latch on to. Okay, this beer is awesome. The bright, fresh acids, the balanced sweetness, the oak, the finish in complex, spicy fruits, and the carbonation. I just don’t want to put the glass down, it’s too good. Dry. It’s not so much that any single element of this beer is ragingly amazing or unique, but that the beer as a whole is rather perfect and delightful. The grapes certainly give it panache, but the real excellent here is in how clean and fresh the acids blend with the beer. Nice job Scott. More: I’m not giving this beer enough credit. It really is pretty phenomenal. One reason is that the barrel influence is perfect and that’s hard to accomplish. Also, the flavors are just sustaining, like nothing else. This is world class.

Was lucky enough to try a bit of this at Flossmoor before DLD, and thanks to whoever it was that allowed me a sample, as I’ve forgotten... Poured a hazy yellowish color. Smell was tart, smooth, mild funkiness. Taste was smooth, slightly funky and deliciously tart and drinkable. Reminded me of beatification, but even slightly more smooth and drinkable. Nice sour grapefruit flavor. This was quite good.

Pours a very cloudy yellow with a small foam ring. Very sour, pungent aroma. Wow! Muscat grapes. Lots of citrus in the flavour - interesting... lemon and apples, plenty of astringent notes. Good carbonation. I don’t like sours much but I liked the citrus character in this one - very compelling.

Sweet Jesus! Finally! I’ve been trying to get my hands on this one for a while. It is every bit as good as I had hoped.

Heavenly aroma. Tart, fruity and funky all at once. The brett is beautiful. Pineapple, white grape skin, new oak. Absolutely intoxicating aroma. Pours a bright, cloudy yellow with a thin ring of a white head. Loads of bretty tartness on the palate. Quite crisp and refreshing. Almost gueuze-like in it’s funk, but not as intense. Lemon zest, lots and lots of white grape skin, oak tannin... there’s enough of a malty base, though that holds down the funk. Lively and vibrant on the tongue. Mildly tart and acidic finish with some lemon zest sourness that lasts forever... Insanely drinkable for how massively complex this beer is. Top notch and superb all the way! Thank you ever so much for your wonderful generosity Ken!

Re-rate. 10/11/08 Everything about this beer is magical and transcendent. It’s radiant and glowing color. The beautifully tart, funky and insanely complex aroma. The taste sends goosebumbs up and down my spine. Wickedly complex and utterly drinkable. Everything... malt, yeast, hops, barrel... is in perfect harmony. Ripe and prickly mouth feel with a finish that goes on forever. I can’t see how beer can possibly get better than this. A true experience for the senses. Truly a masterpiece.

March 09 batch 2. Less acidic. Less barrel and a much flabbier and less snappy body. Lacks the vibrancy of batch 1 and other batch 2’s. Hmmm...

May 09 batch 2. The last 2 bottles I’ve opened have been a bit "off" but this last one is back... spot on! Amazing acidity and seems to be drying out quite a bit. Full mouthfeel and a wonderfully lengthy finish. Can’t wait for batch three!

Another Batch 2 May 09. Out of a cardboard cup in Northern Minnesota while camping with the family. Still insanely delicious. Getting more and more tart the longer the bottles age.

Grapefruits, grapes and berries in the sour nose along with a jolt of alcohol. Hazy yellow-blonde body is topped by a decent white head that recedes to a ring and partial cover with some spotty lacing. Flavour offers apples, pears and grapefruit with a wine-like character. Very dry, somewhat astringent and puckering. Sharp pointy carbonation. Bottle sampled at Oakes’ Xmas tasting 2007.