Bristol Skull & Bones Flanders Red

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Sampled on 9/15/2010. Bottle from 2008. This sour ale pours a medium reddish color from a 750ml bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is tart, fruity and woody. A medium bodied sour. The malts are fruity, cherry and wood. Nice tartness, nice levels of wood. And oak. They blend together very well here, making a very tart beer that is mellowed by the wood aspects. Very smooth. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is tart.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Sampled draught in the tasting room of the Bristol Brewing Company, on a lazy Thursday afternoon.

Had some time to kill before my flight homeward bound, and this place was heavily recommended, so stopped in for a taste or three. I was highly impressed with the Edge City New World [Double] IPA, and probably could have made my way through the rest of the more mainstream offerings with little complaint.

But I really want to get a taste of some of their Belgian-ish offerings -- many of which featuring local wild yeast strains (it pays to have a microbiologist on your staff, it would seem!). I honestly do not know if this beer is part of their experiments with the local microfauna or not (the server was knowledgable, but even she wasn't 100% sure). But I do know that this was a very tasty and appealing rendition of a style that is rarely even attempted on this side of the Atlantic ocean.

Available in bottles only available for sale at the brewery -- and only for consumption at the brewery's tasting room, since they haven't had their labels approved by the gov't. So, while this may be a bit hard to track down (even after they start to bottle and distribute "for real"), it's definately worth the effort.

Very thin layer of foam on top of the ruddy-reddish body. Scant lacing on the inside of my goblet.

Hints of the fruit in the nose, followed closely by notes of wood (oak?), spice, and moist sea-salt, from the likes of a shoreline fogbank, for instance.

More traditional in the flavor profile and mouthfeel. Slightly tangy, slightly fruity, with a back-end semi-sourness that is not unwelcome. Reminded me of a very laid-back and casual clone of Rodenbach's offerings, with perhaps less of the cherry/winey-ness.

A really nice beer, that can easily hold it's own verses more mainstream (compartively speaking) Flemish Reds out there.

With all the different styles and angles that Bristol seems to try, could they be perhaps a Rockie Mountain version of Alesmith? With better distribution, you never know!

Recommended.
//TB