Since my last time visiting Tulsa, American Solera opened a second tasting room closer to downtown where you can generally get most of the bottles that they have at the brewery without the extra few miles drive out to the brewery. The new location is small but has some outdoor seating for when the crowds get a bit larger. You can tell most people come in for a few hours to try some beers on tap, grab a few bottles, and leave. Both locations have a wide variety of beers though certain sours may be available only at one location or the other. You also can not order archive bottles for on-site consumption at the new Sobo location.
I focused on the sours this visit and was glad to see that the selection was much better than the last time. They had quite a few different sours on that I was able to enjoy in full 12 ounce pours in large wine glasses for $10 a pour. I can tell that all of these sours were barrel aged for a time and some of the bottles available now were spontaneously fermented. While I really liked the beers the last time, the sours have taken a massive leap forward in quality and maturity of the whole program. I am very excited to try the Amso Dry, 2 year spontaneous sour that I brought back bottles of.
I started with the Peach Fellowship, a barrel aged sour with peaches. It was quite peach forward in flavor and aroma with mild acidity and great balance. This is one of the more peach forward sours I have had and I was sad to see it was off the tap list the following day, perhaps because they sold through the keg. The zinfandel grape sour called biere de zinfandel was delightful, and tasted to me like carbonated red wine. The grapes flavor came through strongly both on the nose and on the taste and it had nice jammy character of currants and cherries. Though 10% alcohol, this beer was incredibly dry on the finish and scary easy to drink. This was my favorite beer of the whole time there though others were also quite good.
The Party Stout had notes of cinnamon, vanilla, dark chocolate, and graham crackers. I only had a few sips from my husbands’ beer but it was quite delicious as usual. The raspbarrel, barrel aged sour with raspberries was an explosion of raspberries both on the nose and in the flavor, reminiscent of raspberry jam or juice with a nice mild tart finish and fairly low acidity. It was so good that I bought two bottles to bring home. I also tried an interesting beer called Rymera, which is described as a rye beer. It was low alcohol and dry with notes of spice, a tart kick from behind, and a light sweetness on the finish. This went down easy and I was tempted to get a crowler but they weren’t selling them. They later released bottles of this delicious beer.
I came back the next day after Heirloom Rustic Ales and tried a few more beers at American Solera. I started with the Solera Kush, and ended the hoppy beers there, because it wasn’t as good as the Terp Serp was the last time I visited. It was a solid hazy IPA though with lots of notes of candied fruit. My notes left off anything else. The Biere de Picpoul, a sour beer with white wine grapes, was fantastic. The wine grapes were very mild in the beer either because of the choice of grapes or because it had been aged a while. I got tons of great house lambic character that reminded me of a bottle I had the last time I was at the brewery. It had some light notes of peach but otherwise I would not have noticed the white wine grapes if it was not mentioned.
I was already a huge fan of American Solera when I visited but this time I left even more excited for the next time I return. It is one of my favorite sour breweries in the country within reasonable plane rides from San Diego.
Paul McGuire
Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.
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