Brewery: Braxton
Beer: Handpicked, Strawberry
Style: Barrel-Aged Fruited Sour Ale
ABV: 5%

The next release from our new line of mixed fermentation, oak aged beers, Handpicked: Strawberry is a sour blonde ale aged in wine barrels for 18 months with lactobacillus. This blonde ale spent three months on local strawberries from Eckert’s Farm in Georgetown, KY that were hand picked by members of our production staff. Once this beer reached its peak, it was packaged in bottles with fresh yeast and sugar to create a natural carbonation. The result is a beautiful light reddish-pink beer with bright acidity, notes of peaches and apricots, a complex layer of tannins and oak, all capped off with fresh, jammy strawberry.

When Braxton released their first beer from their “From The Woods Series” of special releases (you can read about that one, here) I was pleasantly surprised at how great it was. It takes a certain type of patience and talent to crank out great barrel-aged sour beers – and these guys clearly know exactly what they are doing in that realm.

The brewery loaded up a sour blonde ale that had been tucked away in wine barrels for 18 months with fresh, locally hand picked strawberries from Eckert’s Farm down in Georgetown, Kentucky. They let the beer hang out on the berries for 3 months before deciding that it was ready to hit the bottles, and when they bottled it they let it naturally carbonate itself with fresh yeast and sugar.

I’m extremely excited to see how this series keeps developing – this is one of my favorite types of beer to drink, and I am so excited to see more of them done really well coming out in Cincy!

My Thoughts On Braxton’s Hand Picked: Strawberry

In the glass, Hand Picked: Strawberry is a soft orange color with a definitely splash of pink to it. A fizzy lively head springs to life when it hits your glass.

The aromas are funky and earthy, with a light whisper floral, fruity berries.

The beer is excellent. It’s tart right out of the gate, with the brisk snap of strawberry coming in right in the middle before being wiped away by the earthy funk of the barrel. That tartness and a really nice tannic bite cleans it all up at the end and leaves my palate begging for another sip.

This beer is great – it’s not over fruited, instead using the fruit just to accentuate the earthy flavors from the yeast, and the tannic bite of the wood. I feel like I need a new from the woods beer a lot more often than I’m getting them so far!