Deschutes Firewood

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Sampled on tap at the First Annual Stone Sour Fest, July 2007
This beer is a full amber color and is topped by a wispy, tan, ring of a head. The aroma is quite fruity with solid notes of berries (definitely leans quite strongly towards blackberries), currants and some oak-character that has a light touch.

The beer has a fullish body to it and was a bit fuller than I was expecting. The flavor is definitely tart and berry like, it cuts through my palate, despite not being overly sour. There is some sort of chewy fruit-skin like flavor; something like cherry skins, blackberry skins; it definitely gives this an austere, slightly tannic finish that is almost wood like in its concentrated fruit skin character (my guess is that the oak has something to do with this as well). This beer is nicely tart; it leans towards a lactic & fruity acidity. This beer is quite fruity, without being sweet & somehow this accents the tartness.

It is surprising how much the pinot grapes have added to the overall fruit notes found in this beer. This beer actually almost has more fruit character than sour funk, but that may be my sour craving preferences talking. The body has a surprising fullness to it that, again, must have been influenced by the barrel aging. This is quite nice, and I was not expecting anything nearly this good.