Check-mark another brand new brewery from some imaginary list I have running in my head. (There’s no way I could keep track of all of the breweries in Pennsylvania, yet alone the country, or the world to keep some kind of ‘brewery’ list in my head. Plus space up there is pretty limited as it is!) But this is a new brewery for me, and I must say I was not disappointed by this. Hopefully the others from my beer mail from Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company will be just as good.

If you’ve read my previous blog post / beer review, I received a “porch bomb” on Friday from Aiken South Carolina, containing a bunch of delicious and tasty looking beers. Beers from Fonta Flora, Westbrook, Edmund’s Oast, Wild Leap, Heist Brewing, Creature Comforts, and Pretoria Fields. I’ve so far gotten to dive into two; the Vanilla Ice Cream Stout by Wild Leap Brew Co., and now this Sour Blueberry by Edmund’s Oast.

So I definitely got a nice collection of breweries and a lovely assortment of beers to drink down and review up. Looking forward to tackling all of them here for the blog. (Somebody’s gotta do it right? I mean… they ain’t gonna review themselves are they?)

Friday night watching the Phillies and house sitting my parent’s place I drank down and dug the Vanilla Ice Cream Stout by Wild Leap Brew Co. You can check that review out here: Vanilla Ice Cream Stout. Last night after work and catching the end of the Phillies game (two wins in a row, is the world coming to an end?!) I got to tackle the Sour Blueberry from Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company.

Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Charleston South Carolina. According to Untappd they have 142 unique beers to their name, with a global rating of 3.88 out of 79,638 Ratings. Their Untappd bio reads: “Edmund’s Oast Brewing Co. is a craft brewery, taproom, and restaurant located at 1505 King Street, Charleston, SC in the Pacific Box & Crate development. Quality first. The rest will follow.” They have done some collaborations, one of which is a Peanut Butter stout I also got in my beer mail package with Westbrook. So let’s see what their first beer for me has to offer….

Beer: Sour Blueberry
Brewery: Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)

I absolutely love blueberries….when done right in a beer. Theres been many blueberry beers I’ve had over the years. DuClaw’s Funk’d, that horrible In-Bev garbage one (umm…. Sea Dogs or whatever that crap is called?), a mead from Evolution, and several other smaller craft breweries or one-time deals from Troegs or other places. And sadly, blueberries in beer can be a complete hit or miss. Not much of a middle-ground, ‘fudge’, area on this. It’s either 90%-100% or 0% and no “eh, its ok” middle.

I think its because its easy for blueberries to go into that ‘funk / skunk’ sour rather than that ‘tart’ sour tasting area. And that there is only a small window of opportunity for it, before it teeters and goes from tart to funk / skunk. I could be wrong (never brewed with blueberries, just grow them, enjoy the taste of them, and love beer, so thats the extent of my knowledge).

Appearance is a lovely light purplish almost pinkish fruity look. Typical for fruited sours that use berries like blueberries or raspberries or strawberries (though blackberries tend to give a darker purplish hue). A good rich foamy head as soon as it pours, so well carbonated but not too crazily carbonated like The Veil’s Black and Blue Tastee or similar beers.

Aroma is fruity, blueberry, and exactly as the name of the beer would lead you to believe it should smell. This is usually where you can get an idea of how the blueberry in the beer might be, and in this case, you can tell its going to be the lighter, the tart, the ‘good to drink’ style blueberry, rather than the funk, ripe, potent blueberry in some of the bad blueberry beers.

And luckily taste lines up with that. Tart, right amount of carbonation, nothing bittering, nothing cloying, nice light mouthfeel, refreshing, tasty. Sippable not crushable, but definitely enjoyable. You could sit and have a few, over an extended time, this isn’t really in the pound it and keep drinking mood, it has a complexity and with the tartness its good to just sip while doing things or watching TV. A good fire-side beer especially in these fall times. A little sediment on the bottom that probably best not to drink, but completely and overall a good beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.93 (as of 9.29.19)

A great tasty beer to house sit with and enjoy on #NationalDrinkBeerDay. I didn’t know we really needed a ‘day’ for this, as that just sounds like every day to me, but hey, whatever, gives me an excuse to drink I suppose, so I’ll take it!

-B. Kline

It took the Phillies fifteen innings to win last night. Fifteen. Against the Marlins. And people wonder why they didn’t make the playoffs. Sigh. Ugh. At least I had this delicious gem of a beer to keep me company while watching the monotony of the game.

Earlier in the day I had received my second “porch bomb” or “beer mail” package, successfully completing my second beer trade. (I must admit, I am now hooked, its so awesome getting beers from different parts of the country that I most likely won’t be traveling to in the near future in exchange for some locals from my area.)

This trader lived in Aiken South Carolina and had access to several breweries I’ve never been to (or even heard of), and sent me a lovely package that contained beers from South Carolina (SC), North Carolina (NC), and Georgia (GA). Including beers from Edmund’s Oast, Westbrook, and Creature Comforts. So I was very hyped for this box.

As you can see there is some killer beers in that package and I can’t wait to tear into them all and review them here. Also starting Friday I began to house-sit for my parents while they are on their anniversary weekend, celebrating their 38th Anniversary. Original plan for Friday night was to go to D. Scott’s to do our podcast, but he wasn’t fully setup and ready. And I kinda then just chilled at my parents home watching their fish (indoor aquarium and outdoor ponds), watching the Phills, and enjoying a fantastically lovely stout.

Wasn’t sure where to start really on this package, but decided the Vanilla Stout while sitting and watching the Phills would be a good place (and kind of solidified my ‘not going out’ and not dropping the book off at the library like I was supposed to do). A 10% stout will do that to you.

So I started off with the stout from Wild Leap Brew Co. Wild Leap is home to La Grange, Georgia, and is listed as a micro-brewery on Untappd. Their Untappd bio reads: “Formed by friends and innovators, Wild Leap Brew Co. is dedicated to delighting customers with approachable, easy-drinking and handcrafted beverages in an atmosphere that’s always easy-going and enjoyable. You could say, when it comes to beer, we’re raising the bar.” They have 190 unique beers listed and a global rating of 4.02. So definitely not bad right there. Their top beers all for the most part are IPAs, the first being Chance IPA, followed by a series of beers they have running: Alpha Abstraction Vol. 7, Vol. 6, and Vol. 8. (I received the Vol. 8 with my beer package.) Next is a Golden Blonde Ale called “Local Gold Blonde Ale”, and then a few more from the Alpha Abstraction series – Vol. 5, Vol. 4, to be broken up by a creamsicle milkshake IPA called Truck Chaser, before their top list rounds out with another Alpha Abstraction – Vol. 3.

Beer: Vanilla Ice Cream Stout
Brewery: Wild Leap Brew Co.
Style: Stout – Imperial / Double Milk
ABV: 10.5%
IBU: 35
Untappd Write-Up: Vanilla Ice Cream Stout is a thick, sweet n’ creamy milk stout brewed with vanilla and milk sugar.

Appearance is dark black beer, with a lovely light brown creamy foamy head. Bubbles are varied, nothing bad, and just a nice dark black look. A “Razor Ramon hair color” beer.

Aroma is like an ice cream float. Very heavy vanilla, very heavy malt, you can smell the sugar, you can smell the cream, you can smell some chocolate (from the malt) though its much lighter compared to the other aromas.

Taste is very delicious. It has an oily mouthfeel that coats your tongue but slides and goes down, nothing cloying and nothing bad about this. There is some thickness but its not too much. There is a lot of creamyness to this and its delicious. Its like a vanilla float but instead of coke you got a stout, with the ice cream melted and at the bottom of the glass, it just makes you want to chug to get to it all. There is a bit of boozyness to it, which I suppose shouldn’t be too surprising since it is a 10.5% ABV, and there is a slight bitterness that comes with it, perhaps due to the malts used, perhaps due to it having a 35 IBU, perhaps from other characteristics.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.02 (as of 9.28.19)

Finally, going on 12:30 or so AM, the Phillies finish their marathon 5 hour game against the Marlins, winning at home just to get back to .500, and thanks to two walks (one intentional), and an error on the final play. Thats the Phills for ya.

J. Doncevic is already out with the Rotunda Crew for Kennett Square Brewfest (already checked in to a Chewbacca from Rotunda at 8AM, so looks like his day is going strong already). So if you’re heading out there, stop in there and say hi to him.

Also, it appears, if you are looking for this beer, it is currently listed on Tavour, so you might be able to find it that way if you want it in the Central PA area.

Cheers!

-B. Kline