Beer Review: Scarlet Sunrise – Blackberry and Blueberry (Mellow Mink Brewing)
If you thought The Beer Thrillers were done with the Mellow Mink content, you’re wrong. At the end of our visit on January 2nd, Matt cracked open a bottle of this for the three of us to share and devour, and savor, and savor and devour we did!
I think the picture above is pretty good, but even still it doesn’t do the beer justice for how aesthetically pleasing it looks. Let alone how tasty it is.
While getting to sit down with Matt and Josh and discussing the barrel aging and bottling that Mellow Mink Brewing does. Matt here is Dr. Lambic, Mr. Matt Miller, Doctorate, head brewer, bottler, part-owner, and genius of Mellow Mink Brewing in Mechanicsburg PA. If there is one thing this man knows (and there is plenty, don’t worry) its sour beer. He knows more about the various yeasts and strains and “lactobacilus” and “saccharomyces” then I know things in general – in total. So it was a complete treat to get to sit down with him, enjoy one of his perfected creations, and listen to him talk about how it was made, why it was made, why this or that ingredient was used, how the aging was done, why this barrel or that, etc, etc. All the while getting to sip on this exquisite drink.
So with enough of an adieu (since I wrote all that above, I can’t say with no further adieu, because I did give plenty of adieu), let’s break down this gorgeous beer:
Beer: Scarlet Sunrise – Blackberry and Blueberry
Brewery: Mellow Mink Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: 4
Untappd Write-Up: A blend of sour red ales aged for 12 months in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels refermented on Blackberries and Blueberries. Naturally carbonated and conditioned in the bottle.
Notes: Bottle Conditioned, Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces, Lactobacilius
So after getting to tour the facility there at Mellow Mink, Matt had us sample some untouched barrel projects, and then we went to the finished product. This made for a fantastic cap to the night.
Appearance is beautiful, rosy red, effervescent, glowing, sour fruited look alike, but richer, deeper, more full bodied look. You can tell it was aged, you can tell it has a ‘wine’ backbone to it due to the barrel aging, and you can tell it was conditioned for a while. You can see that this is not merely a regular fruited sour, but one that has been labored over and loved over. It just glows and looks beautiful straight from the pour. Great carbonation, great appearance.
Aroma from this is everything you want from reading the bottle. Your nose immediately picks up the blackberry, the blueberry, the Cabernet Sauvignon wine barrel, you get the dryness, the muskyness, the earthy undertones, you inhale and get even more dry stone fruit notes, the blackberries and blueberries jumping in again. Just a wealth of fantastic aroma notes assaulting your nostrils in one great blending.
Now, this is definitely not one to gulp, to quaff down, to chug. This is a beautiful sipping beer. Not surprisingly given how it was made and prepared, you drink this like wine. You sift it, you sniff it, you sip it, you sift it, you swirl it, you savor it, you slowly, devour it. You let it roll around on your tongue, you let it slide to the back of your throat and enjoy the taste. You don’t rush this at all. Its dry, complex, and full of wonderful tastes, textures, and its just so well made that you appreciate every last drop of it. You get deep dryness from this, you get earthy notes, musky notes, you get heavy stone fruit, you taste the wine, you get overpowering blackberry, you get slow building blueberry, you get a tartness but not a complete sourness, the tartness going hand in hand with the dryness. It all culminates in a fantastic and delicious beer that fully embodies what Matt is striving to do at Mellow Mink – make fantastic beers. And that he does, in spades twenty times over.
My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.26 (as of 1.25.20)
Started this article yesterday morning (Friday, 1.24.20) but had to leave for work, and immediately after work took my daughter Lily to the Hummelstown Winter Fling. Which was an absolute blast and I might do a quick write-up on that. Tattered Flag, Spring Gate, Howling Henry’s, BrewDog through the Warwick Hotel; were all there as well as the Warwick being open for sales. Ffej was playing drums for the Julia Schreiber band and it was a blast hearing them nail some Rush songs in Neil Pert’s memory.
I’m wrapping this up just in time to go to work, where immediately afterwards I’ll be rushing to Marysville for the second day of the Grand Opening at the Liquid Noise Brewery, with head brewer Brad Moyer. Can’t wait to check out what he’s got going on, his home brewing stuff has been phenomenal. So definitely be on the look out for that write-up soon after.
Cheers!
-B. Kline
