Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild Ale

Another day, another beer from Peteluma, CA's biggest brewery... Lagunitas Brewing Co.  Lagunitas, known for good brews and creative names (I'm not aware of any other company who had a brew name banned from printing like Lagunitas Censored *cough-"Kronik"-cough*).  I picked up a bottle of what I thought was Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale, but as I pulled it out to drink I realized is actually Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild Ale, one of their monthly seasonal beers... here's to new things!

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild Ale poured a light honey color into the glass, crystal clear with several focused points of effervescence on the bottom of the glass that formed a sudsy, sticky off-white head that nearly exploded out of the glass no matter how careful the pour.  The nose was gentle with citrus and persistent undertones of banana. 

Little Sumpin' Wild Ale opened with a well carbonated front that tasted like a sweet peach that was both sticky and slightly cloying.  As the ale closed, banana bread and brown sugar flavors with a slight medicinal bitterness took hold and lingered for a half minute or so.

At 8.75%, Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild Ale isn't a lightweight beer and falls somewhere between a sipping and a session beer.  It was admirable of Lagunitas to let the yeast lead the flavor in this beer, but as someone who hasn't bonded with Belgian style ales I found the combination of sweet and astringent a little off-putting despite a relatively strong hopped front.  Most beer drinkers I know should try it because of it's uniqueness, but I doubt most will grab a second bottle.