524. The Bruery and Cigar City Marrón Acidifié

sour faces speak

oaked fruit babbles on the tongue

silent malt below

The above is Jeffrey’s haiku for this beer, which is something we’ve been sitting on for a while so that it had a chance to mature in the bottle. My love of the Bruery is well-documented, so I won’t bore you all with the details. I’m like the Matt Strickland of the Midwest. If you’re desperate to read more, I’m pretty certain you’re all clever enough to navigate the site and find the other eight beers. If not, then the terrorists have already won.

Marrón Acidifié pours a dark Belgian candy brown with plenty of orange and cinnamon colors, and has the creamy tan head that hangs around longer than I anticipated it would. And the nose—that came pouring out of the bottle before the beer even hit the glass, and set my mouth to watering immediately. Vinegar sour and sharp tartness. Both were upfront and almost aggressive, but at the same time rounded with a pleasant depth and complexity, with red wine and dark fruit notes pushing through in the back. As the beer warmed, aromas both brightened and lightened, and a touch of malt sweetness emerged. The puckering began with the first sip: a bright lactic bite before moving into the acetic vinegar sourness of the middle. Along with the lactic zing in the front, there was Belgian candy and dark fruit coupled with some light malt doughiness, while the middle had both sweet and sour playing together at the same time (and playing well, might I add). Fruit returned in the finish—fig and plum, mainly—along with a tannic bite from the oak, ending with a sour tartness featuring a residual tang that left an impression of malt and bread crust/toast. There was also a slight chalky/mineral flavor via the sourness in the end that created a perception of grittiness on the tongue, although there was no real substance to it. The body is medium, lightened by both the tartness and vinegar sourness, making the beer bright on the tongue and clean on the palate, even with the only moderate, creamy carbonation. Certainly, a fantastic beer—I had small circles of sweat on my cheeks almost from the first sip, and the beer settled and opened quite pleasantly as it warmed. Even the dregs from the bottom of the bottle were delicious—oaky and tannic with chewy malt and balsamic vinegar. Oh, and here’s my haiku:

rush of sour, then sweet

biting with fruit and dark oak

rosettes bloom on cheeks

From the bottle: “For our first collaboration beer we are lucky to partner with a brewery a country apart, but on a similar path, Cigar City Brewing out of Tampa, Florida. Marrón Acidifié is suitable for aging up to five years when cellared properly.”

From the Bruery website: “Marrón Acidifié: Imperial Oud Bruin. For our first collaboration beer we are lucky to partner with a brewery a country apart, but on a similar path, Cigar City Brewing out of Tampa, Florida. Geographically a country apart but following similar paths, we felt an immediate connection with Joey, Wayne and the crew. We’re both young breweries, founded and staffed by homebrewers, whose use interesting ingredients and techniques to make unique, full-flavored beers. A recipe was created over pints at Falling Rock Tap House during GABF 2009 and Wayne came out to help brew shortly after. Over a year in barrels has left this dark sour layered with notes of cranberry, tropical fruits, leather and aged balsamic vinegar, balanced with wood tannins and roasted malt. Raise a glass and toast to the success of fledgling breweries across this great nation!”

ABV: 8.5%

IBU: 15

We also tried a bottle of each of the starters I made for the Wild Yeast Lambic on 10/7/2011 to see where the larger batches might be going (I bottled 2 twelve ounce bottles of each starter when I drained the liquid off of each to toss the yeast into the wort). The results: the blueberry yeast version is still not that good, but better than it was 10 months ago, while the raspberry yeast version is still pucker-y sour deliciousness. We also checked the gravity of each, with the blueberry coming in at 1.006 and the raspberry at 1.050. So the blueberry is certainly fermented, while the raspberry is some form of lactobacillus (or maybe pediococcus). So now I’ll be planning the next step for each, which will probably involve racking the blueberry onto something that will go with the earthy and slightly burnt flavors, and finding a yeast to toss into the raspberry—something that can handle the low ph—although I will be racking the beer (or whatever the hell you would call an almost year old wort with lactobacillus) off the yeast cake first, as I most certainly plan on using the raspberry yeast cake again to see what it will become.

(7/16/2012)

395. Ommegang Zuur and Brooklyn Kats

Today’s wandering tour of New York with Adam included a stop at the New Museum to see the Brion Gysin: Dream Machine exhibition (which was phenomenal), lunch at Katz’s Delicatessen, a quick matinee of Exit Through the Gift Shop, meeting up with Jenn, Stephen, and Stacy at d.b.a. for some beer sampling, and finally dinner at a restaurant whose name currently escapes me. So much culture, so little time...

We had our first beer of the day at Katz’s Delicatessen; listed as Katz’s Ale, it is made by Brooklyn Brewing. So pretty much a good call right of the bat. While the server didn’t know exactly what kind of beer it was, the easy money bet would be an American Brown. Whatever it was, it went perfect with the hot pastrami sandwich.

Adam in the background...

After a brief respite to take in Exit Through the Gift Shop—which, might I add, is a fantastic film—we wandered over to d.b.a. to meet up with Jenn as well as Stephen and Stacy, some more graduate school friends who have ended up in the greater NYC area. While I sampled the Pretty Things Baby Tree, and it was delicious, a quad on a warm afternoon doesn’t sit so well. Plus, the Ommegang Zuur was hard to resist—I mean, come on. Ommegang AND sour? Hot-diggety dog. I also got to try the Blaugies Saison D’Epeautre again, this time on tap, but I didn’t want to rub it in.

Ah, the big board.

I couldn’t find any descriptions of Brooklyn Katz’s Ale on the website, although I did find these pearls of wisdom from a drunk and surly Adam Goldfarb.

From Stan Hieronymus’s Brew Like a Monk website: “The Brewery Ommegang sour beer mentioned in the previous post now has a name: Ommegang Zuur. Larry Bennett, the minister of propaganda, provides some details about the beer brewed in collaboration with Liefmans in Belgium: ‘It’s a blended Flemish Sour brown. It’s a blend of two Liefmans beers: Oud Bruin, which is open fermented and then aged 6-8 months, and Liefmans Cuvee Brut, a new, fairly dry, kriek-style beer coming from Liefmans. The Cuvee Brut begins with Oud Bruin, then sits on cherries and is aged for a year. It’s then blended with more Oud Bruin and Goudenband.’”

Go Banksy!

(7/30/2010)

219. De Dolle Oerbier Special Reserva (2008)

This is our second beer from Brouwerij De Dolle Brouwers in Esen, Belgium; our last one was Stille Nacht 2008.

Oerbier Special Reserva is another classic dirty band aid smelling beer—the nose is tart with plastic and adhesive aromas. There are also some dark fruit aromas that linger along the edges, and low levels of alcohol warmth and sharpness. A rich brownish red colored beer is covered by a light tan head that dissipates to a ring rather quickly. Starting tart in the front, it moves to sour in the middle, although both are present on the palate, and then finishes with the rise of dark fruit flavors—most noticeably plum and cherry—and some adhesive flavors. There is little noticeable malt character; we’re guessing the aging allowed all that to nicely funkify itself. Lively and bright on the mouth, the carbonation is sharp and crisp, and helps accentuate both the tartness and sourness of the beer. The body is medium to light—pretty thin, actually, for a 13% ABV beer. Oerbier Special Reserva’s complexity and nuance of flavor is quite enjoyable, and it is certainly a beer to spend time enjoying—it is a very good beer. This is also certainly something you could throw in the basement and pull out in a couple of years to see how it changed in the interim. Too bad we don’t have any more hanging around. I’d make a sad-faced emoticon here, but then I’d have to kick my own ass.

From the bottle: “Aged in oak barrels, refermented in bottle.”

From the K & L Wine Merchants website: “De Dolle Oerbier Reserva is a specially matured version of De Dolle Oerbier. This version is matured for 18 months in Bordeaux wine casks. Oerbier means original, from the spring. This beer has been brewed in small scale (5 gallons) in a copper wash kettle, by two brothers who were students not so long ago. They took over an old brewery which was out of business, and we are sure glad they did.”

ABV: 13%

(2/4/2010)

209. Ichtegem’s Grand Cru Oud Bruin

From the Brouwerij Strubbe in Ichtegem, Belgium. Ichtegem’s Grand Cru has a subtle aged nose—there are hints of dark fruit along with some sherry and port notes to accompany the lightly sour and candy malt nose. It is a rich nut brown color with red highlights—sort of a deep stained cherry wood—with an ivory head that quickly dissipates to a ring. The flavor profile is equally complex and nuanced—the initial taste on the tongue is a brief tartness before moving on to some candy sweetness and low-levels of vinegar sourness with some dark fruit flavors, which then gives way to a brighter, sharper sourness with candy sweetness in the middle, and ending slightly minerally on the tongue along with some darker fruit and rich sherry flavors. Light to medium bodied, there is a rich slickness on the mouth and some low levels of alcohol warmth at the end, but nothing that really jumps out—it is well balanced with the other components of the beer. Carbonation is pretty low, but does help to build and crest into the sharpness of the middle. Ichtegem’s Grand Cru has an exquisite range of flavors—they are layered across the palate, and the nuance and delicacy to be found in this beer rewards those who take the time to work through the beer carefully. We are definitely making this one a Top 10 Best contender.

From the bottle: “Flemish Red Ale matured in oak barrels. Oud Bruin gerijpt in eiken vaten.”

From the Strubbe website: “A red-brown beer of Western Flanders brewed according to the traditional method with different malt types. Hopped till circa 18 bitter units with perennial hop from Poperinge. After the main fermentation at a temperature of 18° Celsius, 80% of the beer goes in bright beer tanks at a temperature of 0° Celsius during circa 2 months. The other 20% of the beer goes to the storing tanks where it experiences a spontaneous lactic fermentation that can last up to 18 months. This natural soured beer is fortified with the younger sweeter beer afterwards.”

ABV: 6.5%
Malts: 75% pilsener malt, 20% amber malt, & 5% dark caramel malt

(1/25/2010)

97. Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour Ale

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge in Ertvelde, Belgium, this beer is made for Monk’s Cafe in Philadelphia. Monk’s Cafe is also the name of the coffee shop from Seinfeld.

Monk’s Cafe has a sour and tart lactic nose; it is a clear brown with red highlights, and has a creamy tan head that laces the glass well. Basically, it has the classic dirty band aid taste and smell. Starting with a tart sweet candy front, Monk’s Cafe then moves into a sour middle with something of a sweet finish even with the tart puckering sourness that accompanies the sweetness. The mouthfeel is tart, sharp, and lively—there is a decent carbonation bite that plays along with the sourness as beer moves from the middle to the end. As well, the sweetness at the end gives it a rather clean closing—there are not as many lingering sour notes as we expected. This is a very drinkable Flemish sour—it would be something a sour beer novice could start with, in that it wouldn’t completely terrorize them. This is not a critique of the beer, since the overall balance and profile is well done; rather the sour comments are balanced with a bigger sweetness than in other Flemish Sour Ales that we have had, which leads us to think that it could help ease newcomers into the style. Nonetheless, we’d be happy to revisit this one ourselves.
From the bottle: “We blend young and old beers to make this mildly sour sour ale. Light bodied with a lactic/sour nose and a bit of sweet and sour in the finish. Very refreshing!”

From BeerAdvocate: “Brewed for Monk’s Cafe in Philadelphia, but also available for retail purchase elsewhere. Oud Bruin in style; a traditional blend of young and old beers.”

From the Monk’s Cafe website: “Our own private label brewed for us by the family owned Van Steenberge brewery, just outside of Ghent, Belgium. Medium body, red color, somewhat fruity nose, malt flavor with a slight lactic sourness. A real thirst quencher and palate cleanser.”

ABV: 5.5%

(10/5/2009)