A Michigan beer got the big game at the Big House...and what a big beer it is - a tangy sour stout weighing in at 8.1%. This is what I expect when I get an old school porter and is not unlike a badly handled Burton Bridge porter I had once in 2001. I have a 2006 and 2007 Burton Bridge in the stash to see if the sensation could be replicated.

No need to now as this one is an even finer expression of tang and toast. A thick cream froth of a mocha head over mahogany ale. White grapefruit tang from hops and the cask balanced with dry cocoa, toasty black malty goodness and a cream yeast. Dryness more than vanilla from the cask as well as other twiggy bittering hops. Not as heavy as its stout confrères would have had you expect. It would be interesting to try the underlying pre-casked stout but I am sure that would be some sort of cheating.

In the context of my sour beer studies, this one is subdued and shows more plank than the mellowing or vanilla-ing that beer in the wood often imparts. Interesting to see that a cask need not be a one trick pony. A full 9% of reviewing BAers embarrass themselves - they know not.