Cut Out Kid

Cellar Dweller: 2013 Half Acre Brewing “2023m2 Soft Sour”

What was once a mildly tart collaboration ale with New Belgium, way back in 2013, is now, essentially, a peach lager. Why did I wait so long to drink this bomber of 2023m2 Soft Sour Ale? I don’t know. But with the shelter in place, I’ve been saying “Yes!” to opening anything.

The first, 2023m2, brewed at Half Acre last month, is a soft sour ale that features the delicate complexity of a well designed New Belgium beer. A partial kettle souring process and light use of Maresh and Sumac all lend an equal hand in delivering a full experience. The numerical name ties into the area measurement of an actual Half Acre. Our hope, though, is to again brew together in the year 2023 and send that beer to the first group of people living on Mars.
This project is underway and if all goes well, some wild folks will be living on the red planet. They’re going to need some beer.

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So, I decided to open what I thought would be a nicely aged sour from the boys, and girls, over at Half Acre. Keep in mind, Half Acre is brewing some of the best sours money can buy these days. Back then, they barely ventured into this territory.

I opened it, and before I knew it, it was erupting like a volcano. So, right away, a third was wasted on the cutting room floor. I poured half into a snifter and left half for Vernon on the back porch. We have been doing this a lot lately, to save some calories and try a bunch of different beers. He comes down, grabs the beer and leaves me Oops All Berries from Lil’ Beaver. It’s fun to trade, almost like baseball cards.

As you can see from the comments above, it was never really a sour beer. Some reviews went as far as to call it an APA or a Berliner. I would echo those sentiments. Seven years is hard on any beer, but I thought for some reason this would mature better than it did?

There’s a half-inch of head retention but almost no nose. It doesn’t really smell like anything. I feel like a broken record, but the only thing I could come up with was: Peach Lager. It has a hint of peach, and a light Kolsch flavor, but leans towards a lager.