Brett, tart American summer
Fans of the funk are in for a real treat this week, with back-to-back Brett and sour beer events at The Blackbird and Pints Alehouse:
– While wild Brettanomyces yeast often is used in sours, not all Brett beers are sour. On its own, it can produce notes of everything from what’s politely called “barnyard” to tropical fruit.
The Blackbird is pouring four examples of that from its bottle cellar in a flight night Thursday from 6 to 10 p.m., including a 2014 vintage of Logsdon Farmhouse Ales’ peach-infused, oak-aged Peche ’n Brett saison – which owner Patrick McPherson says is “one of my favorite Brett-based beers.”
There’s also the 2015 Beltane elderflower saison from Port Townsend’s Propolis Brewing, which specializes in herbal ales, and its dry-hopped sister, Zephyros. “They’re fantastic, but people just aren’t aware of Propolis,” McPherson says.
Rounding out the quartet is Black Raven’s French-inspired 2015 Raven de Garde strong pale, which has a secondary fermentation with Brett plus dry hopping. You can get four-ounce pours of each for $13.50.
“It gives people an opportunity to drink some of these when they might not want to drop a lot of coin for a bottle of something they’ve never had,” McPherson says. “It’s a nice way to try them out.”
– The first-ever sour festival at Pints, on Friday and Saturday starting at 3 p.m., features nine draft selections that owner Derek Quist calls “a combination of some personal favorites, and a few I’ve never had.”
The former includes The Bruery’s Oude Tart barrel-aged Flemish red – “one of my favorite sours of all time,” according to Quist – from 2013. “That was around the time we opened,” he says. “We’ve been sitting on it for three years.”
One new to him is the current vintage of Almanac’s Wakatu hoppy sour. “That’s a brewery I wasn’t familiar with six months ago,” Quist says. “They make sours that are just off-the-charts delicious.”
He’s also particularly psyched for Bear Republic’s 2015 Tartare, which is a Berliner Weisse, and a pair of offerings by Belgium’s De Proef: Sour Barrel #3 and Flanders Fred, a collaboration with Portland’s Hair of the Dog.
The lineup also includes Firestone Walker’s 2014 Agrestic, Avery’s 2016 Raspberry Sour, Rodenbach’s 2015 Grand Cru and Pelican’s 2015 Cherry Poppin’ Dory brown. All will be available in 12- or 5.5-ounce snifters, plus 32-ounce cans to go from Pints’ brand-new Crowler machine.
Quist also is offering discount prices on bottled sours to go from Pints’ extensive stash. “We have a pretty intense collection,” he says.