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Evil Twin and Mikkeller have some serious creativity. Though the label is boring the name of this new sour ale is pretty cool.
I am hoping that 12%, the importer can bring the beers over here in good condition. And then I hope they can make it to LA.
Would be cool to have a Mikkeller. Evil Twin taste off.
I love the LA beer scene but damn if what happens in Portland doesn’t make me green with envy. One thing that I would certainly be doing is hitting the Cascade Barrel House with regularity and especially on Tuesday’s when guests get to tap a weird out there sour beer. Last one was “Apple Pie” (hopefully better than what was in an episode of Justified this year) and this coming Tuesday at 6pm it is …
“Live Honey Rye Ginger.” This NW style sour ale is a honey rye that was barrel aged for eight months before having various types of ginger added for an additional two months. Ginger, rye malts and lemon greet you in the nose. A slight sweet ginger spice and heat sparkle on the palate. A crisp bite of ginger and a lingering honey herbal note lead to a light peppery finish. The addition of candied ginger provides the slight heat and spice. It weighs in at 7.9% and costs $6.50 a glass.
Here are some excerpts from the press release about this special beer…
“Vintage 2008 was aged in oak vat number 96 at Brouwerij RODENBACH in Roeselare, Belgium for the last two years. The 750 ml bottles are cork topped and the Flanders sour ale resembles an Oloroso sherry wine with its deep red, coppery glow. Cask 96 was chosen for this year’s special Vintage because its track record in producing sour beer over the years has been superior.”
“Vintage 2008 is 7% ABV and is more mild than RODENBACH Grand Cru. Like other good sour beers, RODENBACH Vintage pairs perfectly with food because of the absence of hop bitterness. Vintage 2007 took home the Silver award in the Wood and Barrel Aged Sour category at this year’s World Beer Cup in Chicago.”
“There are only 30,000 750 ml bottles of Vintage 2008. RODENBACH is often called the missing link between beer and wine.”
I posted a few weeks back about the opening of the eastside and sour Cascade Barrel House. Now they have “Facebooked” this info: “Beck Berry has been released! This blend of tripels and strong blondes were lacticly fermented and aged more than a year with blackberries in oak. We then did a secondary inoculation with a recently isolated plumbers strain of Brett called Beckamoyces Aasskraquii. Some sour cherries were blended in to give this beer some pucker.”
The Stone Brewing Sour Festival starts tomorrow!
Here is the description of the event (in typical Stone language):
“The human palate is capable of detecting four basic flavors, but during a typical beer tasting only two of those (well, three if you count the pretzels) are experienced: bitter, sweet, and salty. Well, here at Stone, we feel it’s high time to include the fourth flavor domain, SOUR, in the equation. “Dr.” Bill Sysak is busily hunting down the best sour beers the world has to offer in order to bring you one of the biggest gatherings ever held featuring these special brews.”
And here are some of the draft options. (It is quite a list)
Alvinne Kerasus Lost Abbey Isabelle Proximus
Avery Altar Boy Lost Abbey Red Poppy Ale
Avery Bad Sally Lost Abbey Veritas ’02
Avery Brabant Moonlight #16 Blonde Sour Beer
Avery De Vogelbekdieren Moonlight #28 Sour Ale
Avery Voltron New Belgium Bottleworks 10th
Anniversary Wild Ale
Avery Anniversary Ale-16 New Belgium Eric’s Ale 2007
Ballast Point Hout Series Dark Cherry New Belgium La Folie
Ballast Point Hout Series Gueuze New Belgium Le Terroir
Ballast Point Sour Wench Blackberry Ale New Belgium Love Barrel #3
Boon Oude Lambic New Belgium Spicy Folie
Boulevard Saison-Brett New Belgium Tart Lychee
The Bruery Cuvee Jeune New Belgium Transatlantique Kriek
The Bruery Hottenroth Berliner Weisse Ommegang Rouge
The Bruery White Zin Russian River Consecration
Craftsman El Prieto Dark Sour Ale Russian River Sanctification
Craftsman Honesty Ale Russian River Supplication
Deschutes Green Monster Russian River Temptation
Deschutes Little Buddha St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition
Deschutes Saison de la Bond Telegraph Reserve Wheat
Deschutes St. Lucy’s Artisan Ale Valley Chilie Wonka Sour
Dogfish Head Festina Peche Valley Decadence Grand Cru 2009
Drake’s George Brett Triple Valley DysFunktion-Ale Part Deux
Drake’s It’s Fity Valley Olallieberry Sour
Green Flash Grand Mantis-Merlot
Barrel Aged Grand Cru Van Honsebrouk Bacchus
Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme 2009 Verhaeghe Duchesse de Bourgogne
Lost Abbey Duck Duck Gooze Verhaeghe Echte Kreikenbier
…sour beer. The great Beachwood BBQ had quite the large selection of sour beers. 5 from New Belgium alone. I ordered Green Monster from Deschutes. A sour made from their organic Green Lake ale. I normally am a big fan of Deschutes. I love their new-ish pub in Portland but this was just too much. It was just sour from the start to the finish. I tasted some of the other selections but none that thrilled me and most made me pucker and then pucker more (except for the Lychee tart which had some fruit). The beers were just too punishing for my taste buds.
I much prefer the balance of a Berliner Weiss or the subtle flavors of the Marriage Parfait 2003. Let’s stop raising the bar and go for subtle.
Beer usually does not get enough press outside the outstanding beer publications (that you should subscribe to like Celebrator, All About Beer, Imbibe and Beer Advocate). So it is good to see that the New York Times talked about beer & food and that the Los Angeles Times had a great piece on Sour Beers by Joshua Lurie of Food GPS.