Beers in Review: Still working the backlog

in

I have some more beers here from the Craft and Draft Octoberfest, so let's get right into it.

First up is an Orange-Infused Golden/Blonde Ale from Cooper River Brewing Company. The name of the beer brings you just about everything you need to know about this beer. It pours a nice gold-orange color, and brings orange and orange rind flavor notes, along with maybe just a hint of funkiness. It's not too sweet, which is good, and has a fairly clean finish, though a bit of a grainy or corny note in the ending.

Next is B.W. BeerWorks, which is operating under the name RavenBeer, and their Annabel Lee white ale. This was a fairly basic, but well executed, wheat beer: hazy, straw yellow with a refreshing lemony tartness, along with some other citrus notes, a very mild sweetness, and some spice notes, such as clove and coriander. The Annabel Lee also brought a clean finish. Again, nothing ground-breaking in this beer, but a fine illustration of style.

Next up was a bit of right turn at the festival, as I dove into Flemish sour style with Oude Bae from Stillwater Artisanal Ales (sorry about that website--it's a bit of a thing). A nice brownish, reddish copper color with lots of sour fruit and a bit of a red wine note. This really isn't surprising, as Oude Bae is billed as a sour ale brewed with Pinot Noir grapes. It's fairly two-note (sour, assorted fruits), but it is a tasty sour ale.

I closed out the straight fruity section of my tasting experiences with a Wild Ale from Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project called Petit Sour Cassis. It poured the color of grapefruit fruit/flesh and initially had a very slight sour note. The flavor profile was led by mild citrus, almost to the effect of something like unsweetened lemon-lime soda or similarly-flavored seltzer water. There was also perhaps a winey quality in this beer, as well, though I got white wine in this one.That slight sour note also grew as the beer warmed a bit. A really enjoyable drinking experience, and one that I've rarely had.