We just can’t get enough of a good thing here at The
House. Not content with throwing the
first & only sour & wild beer festival in western PA (which wrapped its
third year just over a month ago), we gotta have more of the beautiful
funk! That’s what this past Top Shelf
Thursday was all about – bringing more of it to those who also can’t get
enough!
Okay, done grandstanding.
After last year’s presentation of The Sour & the Funky, we had
enough folks who either couldn’t attend because of scheduling conflicts, or who
couldn’t spring for the entry fee, or who were just down for another round, so
we decided to do an “encore” of The Sour & the Funky & fit it into one
of our Top Shelf Thursday tastings, calling it ‘The Tart & the Horsey’ (“tart”
is obvious; “horsey” is a common descriptor for musky, pungent brett beers). Ten samples for $17 is easier to handle. We think of it as the ‘EP’ to TS&tF’s
double album. As there were a few more
repeat attendees to both the bigger event & the smaller tasting this year,
we also mixed up the line-up a little more, including a few highlights from the
original list with even more novel additions.
Batter up!
If I say that we started folks off easy, it’s by no means a
discredit to the beer – it’s just that Lindemans Faro is easy to love. A blend of old & young lambic, sweetened
with candy sugar, this lesser known Belgian style hits a beautiful balance of
sweet & tart.
Few had heard of California’s Cismontane Brewing, &
their Flanders-style red, named Marea Roja, was the first of several for the
night. Though a little thin at first,
the beer opened as it warmed, bringing smooth cherry & subtly tart vinegar
notes to the fore.
We moved from the sour to squarely funky territory with the
next two courses, both farmhouse-style ales.
Jolly Pumpkin is known for barrel-aging with wild & ambient
microflora, which explained the aggressive foam that spewed from both bottles
of their hoppy farmhouse, ES Bam. It
packed a big brettanomyces wallop, characteristic of this cult brewer’s work. Liopard Oir, from Erie’s Lavery Brewing, was
a little more smooth & subtle in the brett delivery, making for a nice
contrast with the ES Bam. Gaelic for
“golden leopard”, the symbol that adorns the Lavery family crest, Liopard Oir
took the gold medal in the Saison category at the most recent Great American
Beer Festival – serendipitous naming!
If sour beer is to your thing at all, Timmermans Oude Gueuze
will hit you right in the solar plexus.
This traditional gueuze delivered a pungent, complex aroma wafting over
a seriously sour body. If tonight’s
tasting had a thesis, this would be it – all that wild beer can be. All the more impressive that it comes from a
brewery typically known for its lighter, sweeter takes on lambic.
While Timmermans Oude Gueuze is pure tradition, Evil Twin’s
Femme Fatale Blanc took a turn in the more experimental direction. A 100% brett-fermented IPA with the Kiwi
Nelson Sauvin hops, Femme Fatale Blanc (like last month’s American Style IPA)
demonstrated how well brett can complement the hop character of a bold IPA.
Speaking of non-traditional, we found ourselves at a cross
roads of tradition & innovation with Drie Fonteinen’s Zwet.Be. A porter fermented with the lees of used lambic
barrels, it was interesting to see one of the world’s most renowned lambic
breweries breaking the mold, creating a hybrid of two long-standing traditions.
California’s Almanac Brewing also flirted with
experimentation & tradition with Dogpatch Sour. Inspired by Flanders reds, Almanac took the
step of adding cherries & fermenting with a San Francisco sourdough yeast
culture, creating a deeply flavorful & aggressive acidic beer. Locals Draai Laag also tend to bend the style
rules in almost everything they do, & La Pienture (“The Painted One”) was
no exception. Falling somewhere between
a Flanders red, oud bruin, & kriekbier, this anomaly was full of flavor,
& we were happy to have tried it in its newly christened bottle form.
Last but far from least was Goose Island’s Lolita, the most
nubile & seductive of Goose Island’s four sisters (I can’t believe I just
wrote that – oy). Brewed with brett
& bugs, aged in wine barrels with raspberries, this little beauty was
deceptively strong at 9% ABV, capping the evening with a delightfully deep,
complex tartness & fruit character.
So there it was, the “midnight snack” after a feast of sour,
wild, funky beers. I think what I
appreciate about a flight like this is how much variation can be displayed even
within a niche as tight as the “sans-saccharo” family. As always, people were into the beers to
varying degrees, but what’s important is that everyone was game & willing
to try something that may have been a bit outside their comfort zone. Then again, there were those found themselves
right at home. Different strokes. As always, thanks to all who came out, drank,
discussed, drank, & made friends over the course of a fun evening. Hope you’ll join us next month – John
suggested we do “staff picks”. Could be
interesting…
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