Saturday, May 19, 2007

Panil Oak-Aged Sour Red Ale



When I first encountered this unique beverage, I did not taste it. I was at a gathering of beer makers at one of my favorite pubs. There was interesting, informative conversation all around and I was, I have to admit, a bit tipsy already when someone said, "You have to smell this if you like sour." I had never sniffed a beer that smelled of grapefruit. Wow, I sobbered up for a minute and I thought that I'll definitely have to try this someday. Unfortunately it was $30, a bit out of my price range even for a 750 ml bottle. But it must be something special, I thought to myself and proceeded to get even tipsier with my knowledgable company.

It wasn't until my trip to Williamsville that I got my hands on a bottle. It was $15 USD but I knew that I just had to bring one home. For a while, I wanted to save it for some special occasion. I guess I had built it up in my mind so much that I wanted to savour just having it around. In the end I opened it to finally try it. Often things seem lacking if there were too many expectations hanging over any experience. It doesn't matter how good the movie or rollercoaster ride or beer may be, it cannot live up to the thing that I've already built up in my head. This was not the case for this lovely, fruity, tart, delicious Flemish style sour beer. And it's really beautiful to look at, isn't it? My only disappointment was that I only had one bottle.

For a commercial discription and a list of reviews, please see:
http://www.ratebeer.com/Beer/panil-barriqu%E9e-(sour)/22395/

For a translation of the Panil website, please see:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.panilbeer.com/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DPanil%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

To place a private order, please see:
http://www.rolandandrussell.com/HOME.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good post.