Surly Five

That wax was a really really really dumb idea. Just a pain in the ass, nothing else. The bottles looks horrendous anyway, so there goes the "classy presentation" part.

Poured into a wine glass. The beer is deep garnet colored with a good clarity. Initially a light brown colored head of moderate size formed, but it fell soon into a persistent ring. The aroma is quite funky, if not sufficiently strong: street dog just back from the sewer, soft oak, and generally sour (acetic). Other notes? I'll put them under the red wine umbrella, about which I don't know anything!

The sour notes in the taste are stronger than I expected. The impression I got from the forums was that this beer was more about the Brettnomyces and not about the tartness. Having tasted it earlier and today, I think that it is sufficiently sour, but of course not intensely so. The mouthfeel, however, is flawed in my opinion. For a beer that tastes as tannic as this one when warm, the body has to be bigger. The red wine notes really come through with temperature. Generally dark and tart, Five delivers what it promises; but is it great? Hardly so.

For a brewery that makes beers like Furious and Darkness, yeah, Five is bit of a letdown. For a first effort, it's pretty good. I sincerely wish Surly the best with their next sour.

4, 4, 3, 2, 4