Judge's Review: 76 Rating - Twoquila by Area Two Experimental Brewing

Twoquila by Area Two Experimental Brewing​ is their regular Persian Lime Gose, brewed with agave and aged it in Mexican tequila barrels. You catch distinctive notes of agave, tequila and oak in the aroma. These notes are as expected, given the aging conditions and the added agave nectar. What you don’t get is much “beer” character here. I don’t pick up on much coriander aroma, either, as one might expect from a gose. The beer pours clear with a pale yellow hue. The head dissipates very quickly - surprising for a wheat-based beer, but, perhaps not surprising for a sour beer. The agave/lime/tequila barrel flavors dominate the initial flavor on the palate. Then the “beer” flavors begin to emerge. I say “beer.” There’s the malt flavor, although I don’t detect much of the “sourdough bread” qualities that typify the gose style. Not much hops, either, but, that’s to be expected. Salt, I get - tons of it. Sour notes - no doubt, very tangy. Not much coriander character, to speak of. Perhaps it’s there, but the lime/agave/tequila/oak barrel/salt flavors just drown it out. The body is medium to medium-full. No discernable astringency in the finish. There are no obvious fermentation flaws here. I will say that both the flavor and aroma are “clean” (or as “clean” as a sour can be described. . .).

In summary, this a very busy beer. There are a lot of “moving parts.” This beer has very bold flavors, and bold flavors can polarize opinions. As a mixed-style beer, maintaining a balance between the added flavors and the base beer can be tenuous. In this particular beer, the brewer flavors a lime gose with agave nectar and then ages it in a tequila oak barrel. This can be tricky as the spirit and oak flavors can overpower a pale, lighter beer, even a somewhat assertive light beer such as gose. It’s no accident that most spirit barrel-aged beers tend to be darker, stronger, more assertively flavored beers. In this reviewer’s opinion, there is not enough “beer” underneath the agave/tequila/oak/lime/salt flavors. It is a tough task, to be sure. After reading this review, you might think that I don’t like this beer. You would be wrong. This is a well-made beer. It just doesn’t work for me. As the old chief in the 1970 movie "Little Big Man" famously stated, “Sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn’t.”