Thursday, September 24, 2015
5 Things I Learned from What the Funk
Having the "What the Funk" festival the night before Great American Beer Festival opens is much like opening your absolute best presents on Christmas Eve. And the 67 brewers who showed up to the Highlands Masonic Event Center with gifts wrapped in oak barrels and a Brettanomyces bow on top did not disappoint - even if I clearly took this analogy too far.
That said, here are a few of the biggest takeaways from the beer-rich event put on by Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project - as well as some things to search out at the GABF.
1) Barrel-aged imperial stouts should include little extras.
It's not that the run-of-the-mill, dark-and-thick-as-midnight stouts disappointed. But few things at the event were as eye-opening as Green Bench's Manaphin, an imperial stout doused liberally with chocolate and vanilla to soften its wood-aged body and add a sweet kick. Similarly, Westbrook's 2015 Bourbon Barrel-Aged Mexican Cake - aged on cocoa nibs, vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks - offered a unique taste that stuck with you all night.
2) Cascade Brewing still rules the roost.
The Oregon beer maker's Blackcap Raspberry may have been the stand-out beer of the show not because the barrel-aged sour ale pushed the limits of taste buds so much as it straddled a line between puckering sour and wonderful sweetness. Packed with more raspberry than it seems possible to put into a beer, it was a reminder of just how important the choice of ingredients can be to the most experimental beer.
3) Good things come out of gin barrels.
Less popular than whiskey or oak barrels, the newest spirit vessel to the aged-beer party brings a special kick of juniper overtones that can add to the complexity of a beer. This was most evident in Bellwether, Breakside Brewing's sour double wit aged in gin barrels with Kaffir Lime leaves - a combination that produced a different taste every time it rolled over a different area of your tongue.
4) The idea of a "subtle" barrel-aged sour is picking up.
It's hard to be subdued with so much funk and exterior influence on the beer. But Funky Golden Mosaic - a fantastic dry-hopped sour golden ale from Prairie Brewing - actually managed to be smooth while also being full of flavor. And even Souren, a sour ale made with Pinot Noir grapes by Bruery Terreux, managed to pack a great fruit punch without being overbearing.
5) It's hard to beat a good Nightmare on Brett.
As homer as it sounds, few things were as tasty as the collection brought to the party by host Crooked Stave. Stand-out among them was its port-barrel-aged dark sour that blended dark and woody overtones with a blackberry-like accent.
Having the "What the Funk" festival the night before Great American Beer Festival opens is much like opening your absolute best presents on Christmas Eve. And the 67 brewers who showed up to the Highlands Masonic Event Center with gifts wrapped in oak barrels and a Brettanomyces bow on top did not disappoint - even if I clearly took this analogy too far.
That said, here are a few of the biggest takeaways from the beer-rich event put on by Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project - as well as some things to search out at the GABF.
1) Barrel-aged imperial stouts should include little extras.
It's not that the run-of-the-mill, dark-and-thick-as-midnight stouts disappointed. But few things at the event were as eye-opening as Green Bench's Manaphin, an imperial stout doused liberally with chocolate and vanilla to soften its wood-aged body and add a sweet kick. Similarly, Westbrook's 2015 Bourbon Barrel-Aged Mexican Cake - aged on cocoa nibs, vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks - offered a unique taste that stuck with you all night.2) Cascade Brewing still rules the roost.
The Oregon beer maker's Blackcap Raspberry may have been the stand-out beer of the show not because the barrel-aged sour ale pushed the limits of taste buds so much as it straddled a line between puckering sour and wonderful sweetness. Packed with more raspberry than it seems possible to put into a beer, it was a reminder of just how important the choice of ingredients can be to the most experimental beer.
3) Good things come out of gin barrels.
Less popular than whiskey or oak barrels, the newest spirit vessel to the aged-beer party brings a special kick of juniper overtones that can add to the complexity of a beer. This was most evident in Bellwether, Breakside Brewing's sour double wit aged in gin barrels with Kaffir Lime leaves - a combination that produced a different taste every time it rolled over a different area of your tongue.
4) The idea of a "subtle" barrel-aged sour is picking up.
It's hard to be subdued with so much funk and exterior influence on the beer. But Funky Golden Mosaic - a fantastic dry-hopped sour golden ale from Prairie Brewing - actually managed to be smooth while also being full of flavor. And even Souren, a sour ale made with Pinot Noir grapes by Bruery Terreux, managed to pack a great fruit punch without being overbearing.
5) It's hard to beat a good Nightmare on Brett.
As homer as it sounds, few things were as tasty as the collection brought to the party by host Crooked Stave. Stand-out among them was its port-barrel-aged dark sour that blended dark and woody overtones with a blackberry-like accent.
Labels: Breakside Brewing, Cascade Brewing, Crooked Stave, Green Bench Brewing, Prairie Brewing, The Bruery, Westbrook Brewing, What the Funk
Saturday, February 07, 2015
The Art of the Sour Beer Festival
At a time when more people than ever are expanding their palates to enjoy sour beer, it's only natural that a niche sector is emerging for beer festivals dedicated to this once fringe art. But that doesn't mean that all of these celebrations of wild yeast and funky taste leave your palate in the same state.
Take, for example, New Belgium's now-annual celebration of its sour styles, the Lost in the Woods party, shown above. (The brewery is throwing a party at its location in Fort Collins tonight and then hosting a celebration in Denver tomorrow night at the Terminal Bar.)
Themed around its annual releases of its La Folie and its Transatlantique Kriek, the party is swimming in sour, from the new editions of the aforementioned beers to cellared versions of past efforts. (A 2007 La Folie served last year, for example, remained exquisitely tart with a slightly lighter body.) But in addition to just pouring beer, the brewery also offers a symposium detailing its souring efforts and has cellar-room officials both leading tours and pouring various concoctions not typically released to the public, giving attendees a sense of why this is all so experimental and important in today's beer world.
Less talk, more tasting, you say? Actually, this is not only educational, but in some ways needed. For a full night of tasting sour beer can wreak havoc on both tongue and tummy. And that can become apparent even at the most celebrated funk festivals in the state.
The annual "What the Funk" festival that runs parallel with the Great American Beer Festival (or the Craft Brewers Conference, when that was in Denver last year) is the biggest, boldest collection of wild-yeast and barrel-aged beers you can find. The beer geek can find themselves in a deliriously exuberant state as they bounce between Jester King's Cerveza de Tempranillo (a tart barrel-aged sour with Tempranillo wine grapes) and Wicked Weed's Amorous (a bold barrel-aged, dry-hopped sour IPA), as the Fearless Tasting Crew did last year.
But repeated doses of sour beers over a several-hour period can add up quickly; I, for one, found my stomach rumbling and myself looking for something "mild" by the end of the show. And while I couldn't stop talking about the myriad flavors I'd discovered the next day, I also found myself with a limited desire to drink anything more, even though it was in the midst of a brewers conference.
Pace, then, may be the key. And to that end, it is worth seeking out the smaller, site-specific sour fests that the best breweries and beer bars may offer.
Last year, for example, World of Beer Cherry Creek presented a one-day sour tasting featuring 19 different beers - not as many as you'll find at What the Funk or Avery's Sourfest, but more than you'll find in many decent liquor stores. We sampled offerings from the Bear Republic Tartare to the Green Flash Little Friek and left sated but not overburdened. Plus, had things just gotten too tart, there was an available menu of a couple of hundred other beers to us as well. It was a great day.
Truth is, it's had to go wrong with a sour festival. And the best news is that more and more are cropping up. But be warned that overindulging in even the best beers may leave you wishing for a mellow German lager for a few days afterward.
At a time when more people than ever are expanding their palates to enjoy sour beer, it's only natural that a niche sector is emerging for beer festivals dedicated to this once fringe art. But that doesn't mean that all of these celebrations of wild yeast and funky taste leave your palate in the same state.
Take, for example, New Belgium's now-annual celebration of its sour styles, the Lost in the Woods party, shown above. (The brewery is throwing a party at its location in Fort Collins tonight and then hosting a celebration in Denver tomorrow night at the Terminal Bar.)
Themed around its annual releases of its La Folie and its Transatlantique Kriek, the party is swimming in sour, from the new editions of the aforementioned beers to cellared versions of past efforts. (A 2007 La Folie served last year, for example, remained exquisitely tart with a slightly lighter body.) But in addition to just pouring beer, the brewery also offers a symposium detailing its souring efforts and has cellar-room officials both leading tours and pouring various concoctions not typically released to the public, giving attendees a sense of why this is all so experimental and important in today's beer world.
Less talk, more tasting, you say? Actually, this is not only educational, but in some ways needed. For a full night of tasting sour beer can wreak havoc on both tongue and tummy. And that can become apparent even at the most celebrated funk festivals in the state.
The annual "What the Funk" festival that runs parallel with the Great American Beer Festival (or the Craft Brewers Conference, when that was in Denver last year) is the biggest, boldest collection of wild-yeast and barrel-aged beers you can find. The beer geek can find themselves in a deliriously exuberant state as they bounce between Jester King's Cerveza de Tempranillo (a tart barrel-aged sour with Tempranillo wine grapes) and Wicked Weed's Amorous (a bold barrel-aged, dry-hopped sour IPA), as the Fearless Tasting Crew did last year.But repeated doses of sour beers over a several-hour period can add up quickly; I, for one, found my stomach rumbling and myself looking for something "mild" by the end of the show. And while I couldn't stop talking about the myriad flavors I'd discovered the next day, I also found myself with a limited desire to drink anything more, even though it was in the midst of a brewers conference.
Pace, then, may be the key. And to that end, it is worth seeking out the smaller, site-specific sour fests that the best breweries and beer bars may offer.
Last year, for example, World of Beer Cherry Creek presented a one-day sour tasting featuring 19 different beers - not as many as you'll find at What the Funk or Avery's Sourfest, but more than you'll find in many decent liquor stores. We sampled offerings from the Bear Republic Tartare to the Green Flash Little Friek and left sated but not overburdened. Plus, had things just gotten too tart, there was an available menu of a couple of hundred other beers to us as well. It was a great day.
Truth is, it's had to go wrong with a sour festival. And the best news is that more and more are cropping up. But be warned that overindulging in even the best beers may leave you wishing for a mellow German lager for a few days afterward.
Labels: Festivals, New Belgium Brewing, sour Belgian, What the Funk, World of Beer
