Ithaca Excelsior! Brute

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Sour Ale
Ithaca, New York USA

Tap @ SDBF’09. Light pour. This was nice, and probably had the least expectation for me at least. Sour ale is very well balanced probably a great sour for anyone who wants to try their first.

Tried it at BCTC festival and it was far and away the beer that stuck out in my mind as the best. Loved it. Sour and refreshing.

Thanks to alobar for this one. Pours a cloudy yellow color with a lot of white head. Has a little bret and wood smell to it. Has a taste of yeast, citrus, and funk to it.

Pours a cloudy straw yellow color with a fizzy white head. Carbonated body. Altogether very champagne like. Aroma of spice, yeast, and fruit. Mild tartness on the tongue with spice, yeast, and citrus present. Very interesting offering.

From one sour to another, my love is endless and unconditional.

Finished with a blend of three different champagne yeasts, I expect a lighter palate with tight, finely tuned bubbles instead of the typically heavier, more robust Belgian golden ale effervescence. Underneath the thin, broken film of large bubbles, rivulets of streaming bubbles can be seen rushing through their murky, hay hued depths to reach freedom up above. As they burst, an explosion of musk, dank wood, leather, and peppery citrus are released. An almost burning sour tartness pervades the furthest reaches of her nose while deeper notes of sour, acidic peaches, nectarines, and tangerines abound. I could almost forsake the fruit and sup only on their crisp, tart, acidic skins. There is no doubt in my mind that I am in for one palatial assault of epic sour proportions. An instant mouth-puckering delight, she skitters between sweet then sour then tart and dry. While dryness creeps into her finish, she is a bit heavier and wetter than I was expecting. As I suckle on sugar-coated sour lemon drops dipped in honey, crisp crunchy plum skins step into the picture. A faintly sweet presence of plum juice once more gives way to freshly squeezed lemonade, no sugar in mine please. Licking my lips, I note a thin sticky layer which tingles with remnants of her bounty. Extremely rare and extremely delicious, I take extra care to slowly sip, savor, and revel in my Ithaca Brute Excelsior Golden Sour Ale. As I near the end of our fairytale, a gentle dryness of oak and leather has settled in while my breath warms with a wisp of peppercorn, lemon, fruity pulpy acidic fruit skins, and a drop of honey.

Delicious. Intriguing. Beguiling. Seductive. Just a few words to describe this amazing beer, though I could go on, and on, and on. Love-sick ramblings aside, let it be known that I embraced her with all my heart and soul, and nay, she still left me weak-kneed and whimpering. Is there any better formula for love? I think not. If at some little store in a little town somewhere, you should stumble across one of these rare bottles, remain calm, nonchalantly scoop up however many they have, purchase, and saunter all the way to your car for you have discovered the treasure trove.

Hazy yellow. Funky aroma. Delicious sour flavor, juicy, fruity. Superb. It’s so encouraging to see breweries all over the place experimenting with these kinds of beers, with some like Ithaca succeeding fantastically.

courtesy of corby 112. pours hazy golden with white head. aroma is straight sour with some citric fruis elements and light yeasty profile meshing with the oak wood. taste, sour though keeping a nice smooth aspect. yeasty, light brett with orange touch. Definitely has a funky twist that does not affect the palate. Easily drinkable and approachable for a sour.

Bottle: Poured a cloudy dirty beige color ale with a quite large bubbly head with average retention and some lacing. Aroma of sour notes with distinctive notes of oak with light green apple notes. Taste is also a very well balance notes between some oak with some sour notes and some light barnyard notes with a distinctive Brett dry finish. I must admit that this is one of the best American sour I have tasted to date and very close to some of the Belgian lambic. Body is quite full with limited filtration and good carbonation with no apparent alcohol. Very well done and something I would buy again even considering the hefty price tag.