Valley Brew Effinguud

Brewed by Valley Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale
Stockton, California USA

Name: F’in Great Port Barrel Weizenbock
Date: 06/24/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, RBSG 2007

clear dark brown. headless, tart chocolate aroma, rich chocolate flavor, light oaky tartness, sweet alcohol essence,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4

RBSG 2007 Grand Tasting. Murky brown with no head. Raisins, chocolate and cherry nose. Very vinous, flat bodied but thick. Vanilla and a bit of sour toward the end. Strange but good.

Sampled at the RBSG ’07 Grand Tasting. Pours a hazy dark amber brew with a thin off-white head that wuickly dissolves to a fine film. Not much lacing in glass. Aroma of sour caramel malt, bing cherries and a touch of maple syrup. Taste is medium bodied, no carbonation, smooth and creamy. Flavors of light chocoalte, sourdough bread and some yeast. Finish is slick, semi-dry and a hint of vanilla aftertaste.

Bomber from KrausenJockey drunk on 5/28/07
Wow, I’d been lookin forward to this one and have also been lookin forward to this rating. How to rate it??? It’s like no beer I’ve ever had. First of all HUGE PROPS to Steve for having the ingenuity to make something like this. Is it wine? Is it beer? It’s definitely a little of both worlds.
Not surprisingly the lack of carbonation is going to shock some less experienced palates and I could see some 1.9s and 2.5s being given to this (just pulled those numbers out of nowhere) ;)
Yep, it’s not got the mouthfeel of beer, and wow is it a lot like some red wines I’ve had, the yeast tartness even mimicking some of the grape character. But it’s definitely not lacking in beer flavor, with plenty of breadiness, vanilla, light chocolate and even some smooth, chewy wheat.
Not a "weizenbock" in the traditional German sense of the style, but if you expected that or held this beer to that standard when rating it, then in the words of a better rapper than me, "ya have no clue what me and my homie snoop dogg came to do"....just replace snoop dogg with Valley Brewing. This isnt their attempt at the GABF winning Weizenbock, but rather a very creative beer/wine hybrid in the general mold.
I’ve got little patience for beers that are overshadowed by some other, non-beer character, see my ratings on lots of over-hopped, over-fruited and over-spiced beers....but this stuff holds true to beer, you just have to get past the carbonation. Despite the oily, somewhat difficult mouthfeel for a beer, the attenuation is wonderful and, I think, very much compensates for the lack of carbonation.
Lastly (I’ll try to cut this rant off now), if you like wild yeast and barrel aging done right, then what could your complaints be here? Brett and lacto acids only extend to the point of tartness, perhaps borderline sourness, but nothing overdone. Barrel character is layered upon the chocolate, raisin and plum notes. Taste that little tannic bite? Wow, it’s in the realm of barrel-aging with wine (which, for the most part, is consistently MUCH better balanced and integrated than what most brewers are doing with barrel-aged beer).
Yes, I will admit a little bit too much breadiness and acidity does build up, as the beer progresses, but it’s simply jaw-dropping to see a beer fashioned this well with, more-or-less, no precedent.
I seriously can’t even wait for the Decadence GC. Keep this stuff comin Steve!!!

A dark brown and lightly carbonated beer. Aroma has light wheat and some banana. Flavor has these qualities as well, but is also quite sweet and has malt and brown sugar. Very light alcohol burn, and it works with this beer.

Plums, raisins, chocolate and cherries along with some higher alcohols in the muddled aroma. Clear mahogany body is topped by a low off white head that recedes rapidly to a very thin bead around the side of the glass. Plums and chocolate flavours with a very sour undertone. Somewhat thin with almost non-existent carbonation. Bottle sampled with BeerPrince, CapFlu, and Oakes.

(22oz bottle) Sampled at at a gathering at TiggMTL’s place in Vancouver on June 30, 2007. Thanks Oakes. I thought this was a flemish sour? Very sour nose, good malt and ABV base. Malted and tart flavour. Minor cherry flavour. Better smell than flavour.

(Bottle) Pours a hazy amber body with a small off-white head. Aroma of maple syrup, oak barrel, roasted malt, and vinous. Flavor of toasted malt, caramel, peat, vinous, and some vanilla.