Crooked Run Brewing - "Machu Pisco"

A while back I was visiting a friend of mine out in Northern Virginia and we decided to swing by Crooked Run Brewing Co., located in Sterling, VA. I've seen some of their beers here, but I've never made it to the taproom or had their beers in any real quantity. So it was worth a visit for sure.

The taproom is located in an industrial park, kinda like other NoVa breweries like Aslin, and is quite expansive inside - lots of space, both tables and bar, and they even have a mini-restaurant in there. Turns out Crooked Run does a lot of fruit beers, sour beers, and Berliner Weisses, and so as we sat at the bar and checked out the really cool menu artwork - each beer had it's own chalk art  - we tried a flight as well as a few pints. They were all tasty, but I wanted to showcase one absolutely stellar beer: "Machu Pisco."

This beer is a 5.00% Berliner Weisse, which a light and somewhat-sour style of beer originating in the north of Germany and featuring a signature lactic sourness. Today's beer is a peculiar take on the style: made with limes, Muscat grape must, lactose, and Angostura bitters, this beer is meant to emulate a pisco sour. Cool!

Ingredients like limes and grape must are a much more common ingredient to beer nowadays. Limes are popular in goses and other light beers, and Dogfish Head has made a few concoctions using grape must. The cocktail bitters, however, is a really interesting choice and I don't believe I've ever heard of this being added to beer. For those unfamiliar, Angostura bitters are an herbal mixture used as garnish or flavoring in cocktails; it's most commonly found in drinks like an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan (although also sprinkled on a pisco sour!)

I of course already know what this beer is like, since I had a pint or two at the pub, so no surprises here. Cracked open from the attractive-looking pint can, this beer pours swiftly and generates an aroma of white wine - that's the grapes coming through.

As soon as the beer hits your tongue, you'll get strong flavors of grapes  - tastes like fresh, unfermented green grapes, like you grabbed a grape off a bunch at the supermarket. Light, juicy, and slightly sweet. With this beer, there's an edge of sweetness, there, too, which is the lime's texture coming in. Then lots of juicy lime flavor, accompanied by just a hint of wheat and herbs (the bitters, perhaps?) The lactose softens up the beer nicely and makes for a creamy mouthfeel, which is a nice counter to the aftertaste of puckery lime and savoriness from salt. The finish is long and lingering, with a touch of sourness and a lot of that wheat / salt flavor.

Whew, ok, where to begin. There is a LOT going on in this beer, and everything is perfect. The muscat grapes are probably the most noticeable flavor here, although the limes, the herbs from the bitters, the wheat, and the salt all make an appearance. To be honest, lime is a risky ingredient. Some lime beers, like Two Roads' "Persian Lime Gose", is a punch to the face and tend to override the other flavor notes. But this beer really threads the needle and gives a nice soft, nuanced, delicious delivery of lime softened by the lactose and paired well with the other ingredients. I'm really impressed by the drinkability of this beer, too, and coupled with the spot-on imitation of a pisco sour, I feel that this is a total home run for Crooked Run. All flavors are in perfect harmony. At $22 for four pints, it's pricey but absolutely worth it. I'd even go so far as to say this has a place in my top ten beers, ever. Definitely buy this!