Upland Blackberry Lambic

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Pours hazy, barely translucent maroon, not much head. Aroma delivers sour blackberry and a hint of malt. Sour blackberry dominates the tart flavor but lets a little malt through. Mouthfeel has OK body, not much fizz. Fine if you love blackberries.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Pours a deep plum, has some nice foam features .. . aroma of plum, berry, oak, and funk .. . controlled enjoyable tartness, sweetart mouthfeel .. . a great ripe beer, would love to try some more upland- great brews! .. . When they opened The Flamingo, one day it was closed, the next it was open. End of story. I know, I was there.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

2008 Release; Sampled October 2008
I popped the cap and had a sinking feeling after not hearing even a hint of a hiss, luckily I am a dumb-ass an there is a cork in the beer too. The beer is definitely carbonated as it pours into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip with a frothy, large bubbled, dirty, pale purple stained, off-white colored head. The head doesn't completely disappear as I was expecting, it settles in, quickly, to about an 1/8 inch layer of froth. The beer is a ruddy, opaque color that shows some orange around the edges; when held up to the light it shows a touch of clarity and shows a bright, light red color. The aroma is quite tart, but picks up a restrained, sour berry note to it as well as spicy oak aromas and a woody-tannic note that smells of both oak and berry flesh / seeds. The fruitiness comes off as quite floral and there is a slight medicinal edge to the nose that seems to accentuates the floral character as well. Phenolic notes really interweave with the woody oak notes and some tannic berry character to provide a sharpness to the aroma that is interesting and I can't quite figure out if I really like it or if it is a bit distracting. A substantial, subtle (if that makes any sense) fruitiness struggles to be noticed under the sharp notes, but does peek through from time to time.

Light bodied and refreshing in combination with a solid, fruity sourness. The beer picks up a soft oak character towards the middle and finish that also tends to boost the body a bit with some tannic, creamy feeling, texture. Also lingering on in the long finish is a solid, ripe berry flavor that really clings to the tongue, but in a soft, almost subtle manner (you almost have to think about it to notice it). While most of the sourness is contributed by lactic acid, there is enough fruit derived sourness to add a bit of complexity and keep the beer from being simplistic in its tartness. While sour, this is not as bracing as most traditional examples of Lambic. This has a bit more oak character than is traditional too, but I am quite pleased to experience that it is still on the soft side; flavors of buttery oak can be noticed at times (especially after a burp), and there is a light spicy oak note as well as some tannic, palate coating woodiness that contributes to the overall palate presence of this beer.

This has a substantial berry presence, once I start to think about it; blackberries are a fairly subtle fruit, especially after fermentation, but they definitely play a well defined role here, from the nice berry fruitiness, to the boost in tartness. The blackberry notes really have a nice, rip, juiciness to it that isn't really sweet, but somehow seems to project enough fruit character to make one think of sweetness while drinking this. This is especially true as the beer warms up, in fact it seems to actually have a touch of residual sugar left even.

This is much better than I anticipated, though it is not really a Lambic in character; it has a much softer sourness and does not have the complexity & funkiness of a well made Lambic (in fact that is the glaring flaw here, it really needs some Brett character to be a great example of a Lambic). This is definitely quite tasty and drinkable and the fruit expression is almost perfect right now; any more and it could get cloying, les and it wouldn't have the requisite fruit levels.