Ithaca Sour Flower Power

On tap, BCTC 09. Pours a hazy orange copper body with a frothy off-white head. The nose is more hops than brett, but there’s a pretty good amount of it for it just being 3 months old. The flavor is nice citrus hops up front with a solid caramel malt backbone. The bretty funkiness emerges stronger on the finish and lingers quite nicely. It’s a pretty standard example of the style, not too far off from Wild Devil, but there’s a bit more malt to this. Medium bodied with moderate fizzy soft carbonation, a little drier towards the finish.

(BCTC, draft) Murky amber body with off-white head. Aroma is moderately sweet, sour/Brett, some wood, orange. Taste is medium sweet, orange/grapefruit, some Brett/wood, light straw. Light-medium body, some resin.

Tap at BCTC 2009: Pours a murky copper with a dense off white film of head. Hoppy and bretty aroma- haystack character and mild citrus and leather. Fluffy feel with an earthy flavor. Some citric hops mesh with the rustic Brux/leathery presence. Has a resiny finish. In the range of an Orval style, but not quite there. Still good.

Numerous draught samples at BCTC. My favorite of the brett ipa’s I have tried so far. Brett is a little stronger than in the Wild Devil for instance. Plus I just enjoy Ithaca’s base Ipa, more. Another great beer from Ithaca.

BCTC’09. Another hoppy brett beer, I had this after Southampton’s take on it. And I really hope they aren’t trying to mimic Orval cause it isn’t even in the same galaxy. Here the brett is stronger [than the SH beer]. The aroma is mixed with grassy strong hops and that mixes with some brett creating a goats-oil kind of thick herbal mush. The bitterness really breaks through in the flavor to offset some of this, which I actually liked a lot in the structure of this beer. But in general I am not a fan of the hoppy brett brew. Appearance is a glowing thick dark amber with a thick head.

BCTC 09. Pours a lightly hazy golden amber with a medium off white head that laced. Brett gave the beer a barnyard like aroma, some vanilla and not as much funk. Also getting lightly toasted malts and citrusy hops. Flavor of again that horsey barnyard type thing, toasted malt, some citrusy hops, moderate hop bitterness, vanilla and light sour character. Dried out nicely.

Aroma has more funk and brett than the flavor or finish. Comes off sour and finishes on the extremely bitter hoppy side with some pine. Not pleasant for me.

Pouring at the Ithaca booth at BCTC. Pours a hazy light orange brown with a thin white head. Touch funky, with lots of citrus hops coming through. Bretty and funky body conflicts with the malty backbone of the IPA. I just found this one to be weird and conflicted. Finishes bitter and a bit disappointing. It wasn’t bad, just didn’t work as well as I’d have liked.