Mantra is one of those local breweries that seems like they're all over the map. I like it when brewers try new things, and I understand that they sometimes fall, but I like the trying. Even if, like
Bearded Iris, they mostly just try the same style over and over again, I still enjoy the refinement of a technique.
The dirty brown beer is exactly the color that you might expect from a
barley wine. I know this technically doesn't call itself a barley wine, but I believe that's what I have sitting in front of me. I swear to you, I tried to get a bit of a head on this beer after I started to pour and realized I wasn't going to have much. All my efforts were in vain. I got no bubbles in the top of his beer. The smell is very much a barley wine, but it's surmounted by cherries. They don't smell particularly sour, but that's how cherries get you! Let's see what we got.
Yep, first sip is a sour mess. Because this wasn't a
gose, I thought there was a chance that the cherries would simply add, and I may be nuts for thinking this, a
cherry flavor instead of also bringing a sour with it. Alas, it appears there's no beer equivalent of a cherry coke. Instead, brewers only know about the sour kind of cherries. Well, I'm pretty sure there's beer under there, but I'm not sure it matters.
Tip-in is sour; this isn't even cherry at this point - it's just sour nonsense. The middle rolls with more sour, and I regret even trying to get more out of this beer. The finish is the same sour, but it definitely has a little Belgian yeast added to it. I don't care, though, as I had to sift through sour to get here.
Bottom Line: It has soured my mood.
0.0/5