Upland Cherry Lambic

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

2009 bottle - tan/amber with ample carbonation and a soapy head. Strong funky/barnyard aromas. Immensely sour with an acidic mouthfeel. Perhaps a bit too much of an oak presence that serves to hinder the cherry flavor, but the tartness is extreme and pleasant. This is a well executed American lambic.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

my first Upland .. . Pours out a pink sunset, damn fine foam, sticky lacing .. . oh am i? .. . light fruit and good dose of funk and tartness, around the table also said hair perm, which fits .. . nice mouth and very enjoyable .. . aren't you richard simmons???

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

2008 Release; Sampled December 2008
A fairly solid pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip produces three fingers of pale, tan tinged froth. The beer is a pale red tinged, light amber color that shows a lightly hazed, pink tinged copper / gold color when held up to the light. The aroma is fairly tart, with a soft backdrop of funkiness that has notes of faint phenolic plastic, moldy cotton, musty curing leather, . Some oak notes become noticeable to me after a bit (not so much that they weren't there before, but more that I just now noticed them), with aromas of tannic, spicy wood and damp almost sweet oak along with a touch of vanillin. The vanillin character gets mixed in with a light, cherry fruitiness that can just be noticed under that more dominant oak and funk. This is definitely Brettanomyces influenced with that unmistakable, musky Brett scent.

The taste has a fair amount of tartness to it, though not a strong presence for a Lambic. The acidity is fairly soft and definitely more lactic than anything. Towards the finish is a lingering hint of cherry candy; though this is not sweet at all, it just has a hint, almost an aroma impression on the palate of artificial cherry. The beer sort of implies some other cherry influences with a touch of cherry skin tannins and fruit, as well as a seeming contribution to the overall tartness here. Actually the more I work my way through my first glass the more I start to notice the cherry flavors; these notes are soft, but unmistakable with a cherry pie like piquancy. I definitely like that this particular bottle is carbonated fairly well, perhaps not as aggressively so (like I prefer), but it is definitely doesn't leave the beer limp (like some of the other Upland Lambics). Exceedingly drinkable, the beer is nice and light without being watery; the texture, between the carbonation and the touch of residual body is just right.

This beer started out pretty decently, even if a bit short on cherry character, but as it warms up the cherry, while still soft, becomes distinctly noticeable in both the nose and flavor. Really quite nice and my favorite of the Upland Lambics so far.