Magic Hat Odd Notion - American Sour Ale (Winter 09)

Brewed by Magic Hat Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale
South Burlington, Vermont USA

A Mes rate. Bottle at Duff’s.
Murky pond water brown with a thin off white head. Smells like a bad bottle conditioned Englsh ale. Tastes a bit pukey. Faint sourness, fruity malt. Feels like an infection goin on too. Really not too good.

Sweet malty brown bread on the nose. Sweet and tiny bit sour to begin with but mellow bran flakes become dominant allowing the mouth to relax with some tomato herbiness. Surprising dryness in there too. Not bad.

Truth is, I don’t like sour beers. So this is actually one of the better ones I’ve had... not too sour, kind of balanced. Still, not one I’d go back to for myself, and I can see why people who like sour beer think it’s wimpy.

Thanks to Andrew BMan for alerting this to me via a trade offer, I found a 12 pack box today in Dallas at Central Market with 3 of these in there enough for me to have one and a new sour tick which is cool. Honestly this wasn’t great but it was far from shite. Pours brown with a tan ring. Nose is tart. Taste is sweet, slight funky interesting, not horrid and drinkable.

Pretty useless crap, not sure why make an American sour with so little sourness. Its basically your garbage-y like sour with maybe a bit of tartness at the end but I got to look for it. I could easily see this passing off as a bad amber in some 2nd rate brewpubs across the country.
12oz bottle in a New Belgium globe glass.

12oz bottle from sampler pack. pours a clear light brown with a small head. malty aroma with absolutely no sour smell. a bit of vanilla and oak. flavor is lightly tart at best with some vanilla. light bodied. watery.

Draft. Not initally knowing this was a Magic Hat beer and not really being a huge fan of "sour ales", I have to say I was somewhat surprised with the results. Perhaps I enjoyed it more because I wasn’t rating it against the brand? Who knows. Aroma is touches of sour and notes of oak vanilla. Flavor is mostly tart, just tart with notes of sweetness and berry sticking there.

Draft. Who didn’t laugh when they saw that magic hat attempted a sour ale. Pours a brune body with an off white head. Grainy malt body with a light cherry sass. Light raz and some tart berry notes but the grain y body dominated all. No acidity and a dry malt bill. A poor example of the style.