The Bruery - Bottleworks XII

If you're going to call yourself a craft beer city, you're going to need a few things. People who want to drink your beer is a must. As is a wealth of standout breweries. But you also need a really great bottleshop. I would argue that San Diego has this in Bottlecraft. San Francisco has it in City Beer Store. And Seattle's has it in a shop that I'm dying to visit someday called Bottleworks. If you're into beer, you've probably heard of this shop before, mainly because the reputation of their anniversary beers precedes them. Every year, Bottleworks gets together with a different brewery to make an anniversary beer. And the breweries tend to be legit. Breweries like Cascade, Russian River, Stone and New Belgium have all been involved in Bottleworks anniversary beers. Almost three years ago, The Bruery made the Bottleworks 12th Anniversary release, but I didn't come close to getting a bottle. Luckily, the beer was so warmly received that they decided to brew it again last year. It's a raspberry sour that's part Witbier, part Berliner Weisse, and this time, I definitely grabbed a bottle. At #199, Bottleworks XII.


Bottleworks XII pours a hazed apricot color with a glowing, deep golden center and a one finger white head. (By the way, no picture of the actual beer here. I destroyed my phone and a replacement hasn't shown up yet. You're just gonna have to imagine how good this beer looks. My bad.) The smell presents a nice mix of coriander, lemon zest and tart mixed berries. The raspberries are definitely in there and they come through with a slightly underripe note. There's an overlaying lactic aroma here along with just a trace of brett. This is gonna be good stuff.

On the first sip, the sourness hits you right away. It's big and lactic, bringing with it a ton of lemon and some intensely tart raspberry. The base beer here is a witbier and that shows nicely, with some coriander and light wheat notes coming through in the middle. The beer finishes tart, clean and a touch dry with some jammy, ripe raspberry notes and a touch of wine barrel finishing things out. I keep hearing mixed things about The Bruery's sours, but I'm not really seeing what's not to like. Everything I've had has been phenomenal and this beer is another one they've absolutely knocked out of the park.

Final Grade: A

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 127

Stone Brewing Company - Bottleworks 13th Anniversary Ale

While I may not be extremely partial to Stone Brewing Company's year round releases, I definitely have a soft spot for their one-off beers. I've tried every collaboration they've released in the past few years and feel like they're only getting better. Some didn't particularly impress me (Green Tea IPA, Cherry Chocolate Stout), but the last few that they've come out (particularly More Brown Than Black and TBA) have been outstanding. Their newest beer isn't part of their collaboration series, but it's in the same vein, nonetheless. Bottleworks 13th Anniversary is a beer that the guys from Bottleworks (a popular craft beer store in Seattle) brewed with Stone at Stone's brewery to be released to commemorate their 13th year in business. It uses an incredible number of ingredients, including 13 types of hops (Bravo, Target, Columbus, Cascade, Delta, Warrior, Magnum, Apollo, Calypso, Perle, Galena, Chinook, Mt. Hood) and 13 grains (Pale Two Row, White Wheat, Aromatic, Weyermann Chocolate Rye, Light Munich, Brown Crisp, Oats, Crisp Light Crystal, CaraMunich, Baird's Chocolate, Lightly Peated, Simpsons Dark Crystal, Crisp Amber). That is a whole lot going on.

Bottleworks 13th Anniversary Ale pours a dark, dark brown color with a thin light brown head. On the nose, I picked up a ton of darker smells: roasted malt, some dark chocolate, rye, cola nut and some bread. I don't know why, but I wasn't expecting all of the dark smells that this beer offered up.

If I had to describe the taste in one word, that word would have to be "busy." I guess that's not particularly surprising given the sheer number of ingredients used. I was a bit surprised to not pick up much of a hop presence at all, what with 13 hops being in this brew. Instead I picked up a huge malt sweetness with a ton of chocolate, caramel and rye. There was a bit of sticky citrus hop resin towards the finish, but it couldn't come close to balancing out all the heavy malt flavors. In the end, the sweetness coupled with a syrupy mouthfeel made this beer a bit wearing on the palate. I don't think this is one I'd go out of my way to recommend. Just a bit too much going on here for it to work.

Final Grade: C+


Top 100 Beers Tasted: 38