Tag: sour

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Where (and when) the Wild Things will be Released

If you thought tickets to the Firestone Walker Invitational were hard to get and worth every penny then how about the special Barrellworks beers?  One new one is coming out shortly, Agrestic which has been seen in the past but is now coming back in 375ml bottles.  Believe it or not it is a weird spin off of a DBA base.  Just with a bunch of what FW calls “a proprietary collection of microflora.”
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Then of course aged for a bit and blended just so to the point where even super beer geeks are wondering what sort of magic they do.  But that is not all….

Feral Vinifera
Feral Vinifera is an ultra-limited release also being liberated on September 20. Feral Vinifera was born of a collaborative effort with local grape growers and winemakers in Barrelworks’ backyard of the Santa Ynez Valley. Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Orange Muscat grapes were co-fermented with wheat-based wort, then inoculated with proprietary wild yeast to create this trailblazing hybrid.

SLOambic
SLOambic is Barrelworks’ foray into the funky world of lambic style beers. It was inoculated with brettanomyces lambicus, brettanomyces bruxellensis and lactobacillus, then infused with ollalieberries to create a distinctively, dry, cidery, fruity, vinuous and oh-so sour beer. November release date TBA.

El Gourdo
El Gourdo is what happens when the local pumpkin patch calls the barrelmeisters on the day after Halloween, asking if they want some orphaned gourds. Not only did the barrelmeisters take the leftover pumpkins last year, they roasted them in a pizza oven with brandy staves, bay leaf and walnuts before tossing them into a base wheat beer for secondary fermentation prior to oak barrel aging. We’ll just leave it at that for now. November release date TBA.

Reginald Brett
Big, malty, and alcoholic, this hefty brew is supported by a firm oaky backbone and slight tartness from its time in French oak barrels in the discreet company of a certain B. Lambicus. Scandalous! Release date TBA.

 

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Up from the Cellar – Cuvée Renee from Brouwerij Lindemans

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Brouwerij Lindemans is coming up from the cellar in April!  I started with the Faro and now we tackle the Cuvee Renee. A refermented in the bottle Gueuze that the label declares “Improves in bottle with age”

I always dread corked bottles.  You never know if the cork will behave or if there will be a geyser.  But this cork came out easy and cleanly.  No trouble at all.  It pours a really clear orange with a bit of lacing around the edge of the glass after the initial pillow of foam recedes.  The aroma is pure funk.  I get grass, hay and barn wood.  And this probably sounds strange but I also get that smell just before rain starts.  Weird.

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Boy, this a puckery inducing beer.  My first thought was of sucking a lemon.  It has that citrus note that is punctuated with tart.  It is twisting my mouth into different shapes.  It is really sharp at the front of the mouth which makes finding other notes a little harder.  But I do get some oak wood notes.  Very minor but there.  A little bit of apple cider vinegar as well.  I have had beers that are more sour but this is definitely at that end of the spectrum.  Not an easy drinker and a sharp contrast to the sticky sweetness of the Faro from earlier this month.

Both were bought at the same time.  So I will “assume” that they were close vintages.  And yet they couldn’t be further apart to me.  This is super tart and that doesn’t let up much as it warms either.  In fact, I start to get more grapefruit pith notes now.  My palate is in a state of sour shock.

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The Verdict – Part of me thinks that this beer has turned a little too vinegary and that I may have held it a good half year too long.  But the acid isn’t super high and I still do get some citrus notes and the barnyard funk is in full bloom.  So, I am conflicted.  Let’s split the difference and say that this would have been better back in January.

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Mikkeller gets MAD

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You will see semi-frequent posts about how I believe that craft beer and good food can be paired and now Mikkeller is putting his gypsy brewing stamp to it as well with the MAD project.  He has teamed with Chef Jakob Mielcke to create a line of beers to pair with food specifically to very specific flavors.  Such as….bitter, salt, sweet, sour and umami.

And here is how the Salt beer looks…

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I would love to see a brewery and restaurant team up in LA and in every city and do this same sort of project.

 

 

http://madbeer.dk/?utm_source=RateBeer+Weekly&utm_campaign=24f16db828-rbweekly_83a3&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_33216a9626-24f16db828-307447785#!home

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Beets Me

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I have had only one of the “Spontan” series from Mikkeller.  And though I enjoyed The Wild Strawberry, I have to say that I wasn’t thinking to myself.  I sure wish he would do a beet version.  That’s not what I have a hankering for.  But I guess you can tell from the RateBeer list of Mikkeller beers that he has done pretty much the gamut of fruits so maybe now he will work through the vegetables.

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An (Extra) Sour Fantome

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There are quite a few English, German and Belgian beers that I need to re-acquaint myself with. I recently had Omer blonde ale and was reminded how great it was. Fantome is another brand that I should sample more of and this new sour offering is now on my watch list.

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Captain Sour

One of the many breweries that I wish I had more of is Captain Lawrence. And they have a barrel select series that I wish I could get a bottle from each release. Now they have cherry AND raspberry coming after 4 years of resting peacefully in oak.

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Le Terroir

New Belgium is really pushing the envelope with their Lips of Faith series. Berliner Weiss to Eric’s ale and now this…..

“Le Terroir Dry Hopped Sour Ale is the second Lips of Faith beer now available in limited markets. Le Terroir is a French term meaning “of the earth.” Used to reference the environmental conditions that affect the brew, New Belgium prefers to think about the terroir of our foeders, the wooden barrels that age sour beers in varying temperatures, humidity and vibrations. Add in another variable by dry-hopping with peachy, mango-like amarillo hops, and Le Terroir changes every time it is brewed.”

UPDATE: I had this beer recently at the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica and it is really good. Better in small doses because of the acidity but this has great hops and mango taste. It is so balanced that the sour doesn’t take over. One of my best of 2011 so far.

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Odonata Brewing

Another new (to me) brewery but not to Sacramento beer geeks is Odonata Beer Co..

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Two of their newest and intriguing beers are “Water Witch, a rich, dark brown brew with red highlights. The beer recipe itself is for a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. What deviates slightly from the ‘official’ style guidelines is the maturation in red wine barrels, which lends a slightly acidic note to the finish.
Our first collaborative beer – made with the help of the Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton! This is called Beersel, a name that pays homage to the place our yeast culture originated – in the bowels of the famed 3 Fonteinen brewery! This is a true Sour Ale, but not technically a Lambic (which is a spontaneously fermented beer) or Gueuze (lambics, blended). The grist and hopping is pretty much what the Senne Valley brewers use to make their lambics, however, with raw wheat, pale malted barley and whole flower hops aged 10 years.”