Beer Review, Struiselensis Wild Belgian Ale

After getting back to the house, Kriddy fell asleep on the couch, so I pulled out another beer. My choice for finishing the evening, Struisenlensis Wild Belgian Ale.

I wasn't sure the correct glass for this, so I went with a plain old wine glass. A pint didn't seem right, neither did a goblet, wheat, or tumbler.

This one poured out yellow, looked almost like a cider (you'll be hearing lots of cider references here). It looked almost like dark dehydrated "I needa drink more water" pee. There was little to no head.

It smelled of sour. Instantly, it smelled of sour. I opened the bottle and I smelled sour. I poured into the glass, and I smelled sour. I knew this would be sour. It was almost a painful sour smell, but that probably helped make it more drinkable, as I expected something very tart, it wasn't as bad as I was braced for.

It felt highly carbonated (even though there was no head). The tartness of it replaced a need for carbonation. The tart ripped across the tongue like lightning. It wasn't fast moving, it moved faster than light from the front to the back.

So how did it taste? Duh, tart! It was sour, and gave off an almost spoiled feel. It had the taste of a cherry sour patch kid, maybe a little watermelon in the flavor? As it warmed, I got a hint of a caramel malt flavor, that was extremely unexpected, but rather nice. Later, it almost felt like I was drinking a Granny Smith Apple Cider. You know, the tartest of the ciders. The flavor stayed on the back edges of the tongue, but the rest was cleaned off by the tartness. There was enough sweet in it to make it bearable to drink, but this is definitely a once a night beer. I wouldn't want to try to get drunk on this.

I believe I picked this bottle up in Indianapolis at Payless Liquors, 7369 Madison Ave. I got it because I had previously drank the Struise-Mikkeller and enjoyed that immensely, so I thought I'd try more Struise. If you like sours, you'll love this beer.