Valley Brew Stockton Sour (Phils Wild Mild)

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

Bottle at Chris_o’s The Wolf tasting. Beer of the evening for me. Rather a lovely sour aroma. Bit of wood. In mouth, sweeter and maltier than you would expect from the aroma. Great sour finish. Good sour beer.

A Mes rate: bottle at Chris_O’s Ha Ha Ha Ha Gimme the Cheese Tasting.
Beautiful red amber brown with no head or carb. Awesome aroma that is both sour and malty and just an excellent combination. The yeast is obviously Belgian and very Rodenbach. Lovely fruity notes and just all round perfectly poised. Flavour is not quite so fantastic but it’s still a cracker. Awesome sweet / tart balance, lovely and soft and a glorious prickly yeasty warmth in the belly a la Rodenbach as it should be. Very slight oxidised and metallic notes. Dry and fruity finish with more lip smacking sourness. Complex and bloody brilliant.

Bottle @ Chris_o.
[thank you, Phil_L]
[my 2700th rating]
Pours deep coppery amber with no head - which is no surprise, as it is not carbonated. Aroma is wonderful, complex, yet mild. Some port character with a great spiciness to it - especially herbs like thyme and a good woody finish. No carbonation makes it wonderfully oily as well - even despite the impressively low ABV. Flavour is dry, woody, crip maltiness and a subdued berry note. Wonderfully tart, really balancing nicely into everything else. A truly well-composed brew - too bad there was so little, and now, that there are no more :o(

Bottle, April 2008 tasting. Quite sour and fairly funky aroma. Good tart sour edge on the palate, although less than the nose would have suggested. Definite Rodenbach qualities, as others have mentioned. Very good. Sorry, rather scant notes but I’m not going to see this again so they will have to suffice.

Thanks go to Steve for sending this my way! Poured clear lighter copper with no head or otherwise perceptible carbonation. The aroma picked up tart aged caramel and semi-sweet chocolate paired with sour cherry vinegar and oak surrounding (and taking over as the drink progressed).. the yeasties really worked their magic as there was a fine level of entirely complimentary funk. The flavor found tart cherry skins and charred wood with ample funk.. sweeter caramel at the core.. the back-end had moderate berry and vinegar sourness (a huge dose would’ve thrown this off balance).. mighty tasty! Light-bodied and funky on the palate.. really dried out the palate in a careful and calculated way.. I would love to drink more of this!

Tasted at the February Northern California Beer Tasting. WOW!! This sour poured a murky amber brown color. Little of no head, no carbonation. The aroma is malt, woody and tart, with some funk. At first I thought this was an old Rodenbach Grand cru, then it sort or reminded me of a Valley Brew effenbock, then I wasn’t so sure. Damn nice beer though. The beer is very complex and seems to change character with each sip. Lots of malt, fruitiness, funk and tartness. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

Bottle. This hand bottle did no hold up. Just dominated by pure sour notes malt vinegar and nothing much else. A hint of sour milk and then just vinegar the whole way through.

Thanks to Frumpty for sharing. Pours a medium ruby amber- some haze, no head- very minimal light soft carbonation. Aroma is mineral-like, light metallic, vitamin B hint, with a good dose of malt vinegar- Flemish sour-like- similar to rodenbach, lots of acetobacter. Flavor - light sweetness, some sugary sweet sharpness cut by the acidity, almost a fruity raspberry and cherry pie like funk going on- lots of pedio, but very low brett character detected - again good rodenbach like sourness in the end, with some murky yeastiness clouding it a bit. Prickly harsh acidity- lots of pedio, acetobacter, nice malt vinegar acetic acid- hints of red wine vinegar as well. The apple acidity I get from some older Flemish reds isn’t in this one. Nice Flemish red.