Ithaca's LeBleu

Ok folks, I'm really excited to try this beer! Ithaca's "Brute" was fantastic and being that this beer is somewhat similar, I can't wait to try it!

In fact, I am working with Beer Advocate's newtonty in trying to land one for a small sour tasting coming up in early April of this year! Here's a detailed description of "LeBleu" straight from Ithaca's beer blog:

“In other huge news, we’re having our first ever day of simul-bottling- with one 3-man crew doing about 150 cases of LeBleu and the other rocking out 1,000 case equivalents of CascaZilla. ‘LeBleu’ you say? Yep, it’s finally ready to bottle. It’s a blend of 8 different wine barrels of aged sour beers from 2007, 2008 and 2009 each spiked with 50 lbs of fresh, hand-crushed local blueberries this past August. It is a really unique beer, and each of the barrels brought it’s own element to the blend. It’s very sour and dry, brilliantly red colored with a beautiful cap of pink foam and has that unmistakable blueberry aroma. I sampled each barrel and the overall blend while transferring them to the bottling tank, and the sum of parts is really pretty special.


For those curious about the name, it’s for our old friend (and 2nd IBC employee) Bret LeBleu. He and his wife Catherine and daughter Audrey moved back to Ithaca this year, and it’s great to have them around…what with all of the brettanomyces and blueberries it just was a natural fit with the beer...”

At the present time, beer advocate rates the LeBleu an A- after 55 reviews while ratebeer gives it a 98/100 after 64 reviews.

Look for my review of this beer in the next few weeks!
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Top Image source: http://www.ithacabeer.com/excelsior.php
Ithaca blog source: http://www.ithacabeer.com/beerblog/?p=57