Beer Notes: Tart times at Rio Bravo

Rio Bravo head brewer Ty Levis said, long ago, that he fully planned to take advantage of the many barrels in his possession to branch out beyond simply doing standard barrel-aged stouts, porters, and barley wines. A sour program was coming, at least as soon as things finally settled down in terms of production at the brewery at Second Street and I-40.

“The pressure of regular production kept us from doing this until now,” Ty said. “We have volume considerations that have to come first.”

The quiet time of year, when brewers can get back to their mad scientist roots, is now upon us. Rio Bravo will release their new Raspberry Sour today (Friday) at the brewery.

“This beer is really cool,” Ty said. “I’m definitely happy with it. I started out by talking our pilsner and aging in it wood barrels for nine weeks. We had about 120 gallons up there.”

From there, Ty added the raspberry puree to the fermentation process. For the souring proce

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