Cisco Brewers is another brewery I haven't seen or heard anything about before. I happened to see it while at the liquor store and on a bit of a whim decided to give it a shot. From their website, it appears that Cisco is a combination brewery, winery, and distillery. Their main product is a vodka, but they produce a fair number of craft beers as well. The Woods seems to be a series of wild ales, and this one is a 2 year old Flemish-red aged for 10 months on sour cherries. And what that means is a sour beer, something I've been getting more into lately.
I have had some sour beers that are pretty mild, but this is not one of them. Just from smelling it you can tell that there's a strong sour quality, which presents itself in the taste as a puckering lactic tartness. It's a deep reddish brown, cloudy, with pretty much no head. It's got a fairly high level of carbonation (maybe even overcarbonated), which combined with the dryness of it, makes this beer seem to suck the moisture out of the throat. However, this beer is not over the top sour either, but presents itself with a nice balance of acetic nature and other wild flavors. The tartness seems to come from the cherries as well.
As I haven't had very many sour beers yet, it's hard to really judge this beer against another. However, I did find it to be tasty, and enjoyably tart without being sickening. It's even a bit refreshing despite it's dryness. It does seem to wake you up a bit. Dan says it's like getting kicked in the face by a cherry ninja. I think it's like licking a sour-patch kid. While it's not the best sour beer I've had yet, it holds its own, and it certainly seems worth a try.
- Adam
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