Blue Mountain Brewery Sour Devil
It appears as though I’m tackling a couple of trend related beers this week. First up was yesterday’s wine-barrel aged White Monkey from Victory Brewing. Today we have a representative from the ever growing sour stout category.
Blue Mountain Brewery took a fresh batch of their Dark Hollow and aged it in bourbon barrels that had formerly held previous batches of this imperial stout, but that’s not all. To spice things up a bit the company also cultured naturally occurring lactobacillus in each barrel. The result is a beer that’s still a stout at heart, but also has a twinge of lactic sourness to it that doesn’t overwhelm the palate. With a name like “Sour Devil,” I was expecting more of a tart punch.
Appearance
Sour Devil pours an opaque black with a thick crown of tan foam.
Aroma
Roast coffee, wood, chocolate and a moderate amount of lactic sourness lingering in the background.
Taste
Hmmmm… it’s not really all that sour. It certainly has that tell-tale sourness that lactobacillus can bring to the palate, but it’s not really all that potent. The stout characteristics dominate with hints of chocolate, roast coffee, a touch of bourbon and a solid woody presence. The sourness appears more in the finish of this full-bodied brew, lingering there gently.
Overall
Now, whenever I encounter a beer of this genre, I can’t help but immediately draw comparisons to The Bruery’s Tart of Darkness, perhaps the most tart/sour of any stout I’ve ever had. Sour Devil, in relation to its West Coast brethren, isn’t by any means sour or tart. It’s more rounded in terms of it’s flavor profile and is still a smooth drinking and tasty brew. I had just hoped for a more potent sour note based on it’s moniker.
Rating: 3.5/5
