Beer Review: Imperial Vin Bu

Reviewing the Imperial Vin Bu from De Garde Brewing out of Tillamook, Oregon. This beer is a berliner weisse style ale aged in wine barrels with Merlot grapes.

Score: 95

2014 vintage bottle served in a Toppling Goliath snifter and enjoyed on 04/09/14. Review is from iPhone notes.

Appearance: Pours a vibrant pink-ruby candy drop color with a finger and a half of fizzy pink-white head that settles to a nice coating. Excellent lacing and retention. The beer is noticeably effervescent. 4.75/5

Smell: Wheat, some grape and a touch of hay funk. A hint of oak and a little lacto. Good mix, but muted on the grape relative to the amount of cranberry in Cranberry Bu or boysenberry in Boysenberry Bu. 4.25/5

Taste: With no real funk or grain character in the taste, this tastes much more tart grape and musty fruit forward than than the nose. Similar in flavor to a fresh Saint Lamvinus, with a kiss of lacto towards the finish. Not very complex, but quite delicious. More lacto character comes through as the beer warms. By the time this beer reached room temp it tastes like Smarties candy flavored fruit punch with a lacto twist. Yummy. 4.5/5

Mouthfeel: Thin-plus bodied, appropriately effervescent. Quite dry on the finish (particularly on the gums), accentuating the tartness of the brew nicely. 4.5/5

Overall: A deliciously light, tart and flavorful, albeit not super complex, berliner-style sour ale from a brewery that is quickly becoming a master of these kind of beers. Highly recommend this one.

Cost: $10 for a 750 ml bottle