25 Drinks: Bad One in the Bunch

December 21 of the boozy advent calendar had a brew that I had saved but never tried. Boulevard Brewing and Sierra Nevada collaborated on Terra Incognita for SAVOR 2012 and liked it so well they tried it two more years. This one was the 2013. It was....just not quite right for me. It was a dark brown ale, with some wheat thrown in, aged in whiskey barrels for nearly three months, and oh! it's a sour. Yeah, a lot going on. With all of that happening, it didn't seem to meld like some other complicated brews. The whiskey and oak flavors didn't really make a strong enough impact. The sour came and went with just enough flavor to make it taste a little off. The wheat stuck out from the smooth barley malted goodness and left a bad taste in my mouth. It also had an enormous amount of carbonation. It just blew up in the glass. It was bad enough that I looked online to see if it was contaminated. While people complained about the foam, there was no recall (like the Blvd Chocolate Ale).

The 2014 was brewed without brettanomyces and had a mixture of fresh ale, wine barrel aged ale, and whiskey barrel aged ale. Maybe that one was better!

People love this beer. People worship this beer. I do not.