Reviews are done by Jim Matt, our Head Brewer, who is also a veteran FoBAB judge, GABF judge, and BJCP Master judge.

Brewed to celebrate our third orbit around the sun, we're charting tarter territory with Trips. This sour ale features the addition (during fermentation) of sour cherries and currants for a maelstrom of fruit and sour power. Trips is neon pink, sour, and hypnotic.

Malts: 2-row, Wheat and Sauer Malt

Hops: Magnum

Trips is an American Sour Ale, can you say a little bit more about that?

The traditional German sour beers such as Gose and Berliner Weiss are lower alcohol versions of sours. In an American Style sour, our intention was to amp up the flavor, as well as the alcohol.

What is different in the brewing process of this beer?

This beer has to go through souring process using lactic acid bacteria, followed by boiling, then a more traditional fermentation process. Currants and sour cherries are added toward the end of the fermentation process to dry the beer out.

This is the first American Sour we’ve brewed, correct?

You betcha.

What makes you want to drink this beer, Jim?

The complexity from the fruit, lactic sourness, as well as a different type of brewer's yeast all yield a very flavorful and complex beer.

What was the inspiration for Trips?

We were deciding on a beer for our third anniversary and didn't want to brew “just another IPA” since we are brewing IPAs, Pale Ales and Double IPAs more frequently these days. We think we have refined our souring process to produce some fine and different types of beer and wants Trips to be just that.

Appearance: Reddish color with a light amount of haze. Medium carbonation. Thin non-persistent head.

Smell: Very fruity with notes of currants, cherries, slight apple, pear and peach aromas. Smells quite sour, with some almond notes in the background (from the sour cherry).

Taste: Low maltiness, very low bitterness, no hop flavor. Very tart from the lacto fermentation followed up by a blast of citric tartness from the cherries and currants. Dry finish.

Mouthfeel: Surprisingly medium bodied, medium carbonation.

Overall: A complex fruit sour that finishes very dry, with many fruity notes all playing together in harmony.

What foods would pair well with Trips?

Black Forest cake or beef pot pie.

Ideal glassware for Trips?

Tulip glass.