Iron Hill Cassis de Hill

Courtesy of jdubFL. Pours red wine looking grapefruit juice with thin white to pinkish head. The aroma is mild and a bit musty with dark berries and currant berry tartness. Pretty nice. The taste starts with a pulse of sweetness quickly becoming berry sweet and then toward currant skin tannin tartness. The fruity sweetened notes fade and leave only fruit skin tartness and a drying palate into the after taste.

750ml. Bottle-conditioned, unfiltered. Muddy purple-grey colored body with a small off-white head. In a burgundy glass the nose shows incredible depth with a nice balance found between the natural sweetness of the currant and the high acidity of the lambic. The result is a dense, deeply complex aroma of tannic currant skins along with a mild but noticeable natural berry sweetness balanced by the slightly acetic and woody lambic (not fatty/eggy at all). The sweetness balances what I thought was an excessively acidic yeast character in the unblended Iron Hill lambic, resulting in a wonderfully flavorful and complex fruit lambic, exceeding my expectations.

Where the Wild Beers Are @ The Gate 8/30/09. Reddish amber with ring. Wood fruit and kitty litter aroma. Wood leather fruit honey with funky clean finish. Nice soft palate. Very good, but first time I’ve smelled kitty litter in a beer.

Bottle at WTWBA. Nutty, bandaid, cherry, mild charcoal in the nose. The flavor is mildly cardboardy (already?!), a bit thin, with light, watery, minty notes. White wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar make up the sour component. A touch of raspberry aromatics, as opposed to cassis which I really don’t notice at all.

Bottle at the Where the Wild Beers are event. Pours a ruby brown with a thin white head. Light fruit, light vin. Crisp, spicy, malt, acid and fruit. Tangy and with some big vinegar on the finish.

Bottle shared at Where the Wild Beers Are NYC 2009: Murky ruby with a pinkish off white head. Lots of cassis in the aroma. Some mild buttery oak, and vinous qualities- but mainly has that dark fruit sweetness. Creamy body with a flavor that is predominately buttery oak under a cassis/blackberry sweetness. Has a soft tartness and toasted oak notes as well. Mildly acidic- but mainly creamy and soft. Not bad, and not solvently like some other Iron Hill Lambics.

Opaque, purple pour with thin pink head. Sweaty, barnyard aroma surrounding fruit skins. Flavor is tart, tangy berries, sweaty barnyard funk, light oak. Nice rush of tartness makes my mouth water. Pretty delicious beer, even though I’ve never been much of a fan of black currants, they work well with this style.

Reddish pour with some tinted head. Aromas of fruity tart funk. Flavors were grape and cherry and more funk. Not too bad.