Crooked Stave Hop Savant "Falconer's Flight" Brettanomyces IPA

Got a bunch of these Brettanomyces beers recently, and I'll be picking through them one by one. The only difference between them, as far as I can tell, is the type of hop that is used in each bottle. This one is "Falconer's Flight" and I have literally no idea what that is supposed to mean to me, the beer consumer. I'd say they put this beer together with a lot of thought and not enough marketing.

The beer is a very, very cloudy bright copper-orange color with a white head that has an admirable amount of stickiness that really clamps on hard to the sides of the glass. The aroma is citrus out the wazoo. The citrus is mostly orange in nature, and it is quite enticing. I'm going in for a sip.

First sip is wildly different than anything I had expected. The citrus bite was expected, but the raw fruit juice concentrate was way different than pretty much anything I've had before. The bitterness is right through the drink, and it culminates in a sourness that, unlike previous encounters with sour beers, is not off-putting. The beer is very dry, and it is making me thirsty. I hope I'm not becoming a hipster.

Tip-in is pretty much devoid of carbonation and a bit of orange and grapefruit to keep things interesting. The middle comes along with a giant whopping of sourness and stringent yeast. It's... pretty rough at first, but time is its friend, and it eases up. The finish, however, keeps bringing back the kind of grapefruit tangy-bitterness. As you drink it, the whole thing gets better.

Bottom Line: A beer project that I will continue to follow with great interest.

2.75/5