Boulevard Love Child No. 4

This is limited release from the Smokestack Series from the Boulevard Brewing Company of Kansas City, Missouri.  They release a version of this sour each year. This is year 4. This year it comes in at 9.0% ABV and is 50% aged in whiskey barrels and 15% aged in wine barrels. The label has a nice 1960's hippie era graphic feel (plus the stars are actually sparkly).

The beer pours a gleaming amber, burning orange, nearing redness. There is a short and thin head of light tan foam. The aroma is tart, woody, funky, very light notes of whiskey, vanilla, and wine. The taste is massive tartness, sour to the max, it overwhelms everything else. Where is the funk, and wood and whiskey and wine? It’s like drinking malt vinegar. If the taste was anywhere near the aroma it would be better. I like some sours (for example see Duchesse de Bourgogne, or Schell's Framboise du Nord), but this is disappointing because the whiskey, wine and wood should have been given a more pronounced effect on the overwhelming sourness.

I checked my review of Love Child No. 2 (now I remember why I skipped No. 3) and again added some Templeton Rye to balance the massive sourness and make it, for me, more drinkable.