Bretta Tangerine
Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

12,7oz bottle purchased off the shelf as a single, don't remember the price. Label says Batch: No. 002, Bottled: 05/02/20, Number of Cases: 2200. This beer is therefore a bit over a year and half old (19 1/2 months).

Look: Pours a beautiful, bright orange color. I reserved the sediment/yeast in the bottle for now. This is essentially clear, with some small particulates floating in the glass. There is zero head here. Tiny bubbles are rising with moderate speed. After pouring the bottom of the glass, it became a bit of a cloudy mess with lots of small pieces of the yeast cake suspended at the bottom of the glass.

Smell: The nose is very acidic, lots of tangerine zest and funky yeast. Secondary peppery and herbal notes. The nose is decent. I wish that it was more expressive and had more dimension to it. Floral and more juicy notes after adding the sediment, so it did become more complex after that addition. You can really taste the whole tangerine in the final product.

Taste: This is very sour and I like it. It is actually more sour that the nose indicates. Up front, it's a puckering tangerine acidity with notes from the zest and juice. There is very little sweetness here - any residual sugars have been consumed by the Brettanomyces and lactic acid bacteria. The beer is light on the palate, crisp, refreshing, and easy to drink. The finish is a bit peppery, herbal, and funky with notes from the yeast and mixed culture. I would say that the finish is moderately dry; it's tart so there must be some sweetness left in there as it doesn't dry up the palate so much. The taste did become a bit more complex and juicy after adding the sediment. Very interesting the "yeast cake" seemed more like a "mother" in that it was very soft and jelly-like in texture and it was actually quite tasty (juicy and pulpy, again nice tangerine flavor). It had a slight vitamin flavor, but it basically tasted more like orange Gatorade powder than yeast.

Feel: It's crisp and refreshing. The body is light to medium and the carbonation is appropriate. It can probably wouldn't hurt to have a touch more carbonation, but it's not really lacking the way that it is.

Overall: I really like sours, so this is my kind of style of beer. I also like funkiness, but I don't think that I am the biggest fan of Brettanomyces. Yet the way that they used it here in combination with the tangerine really works well in my opinion. I would like to try the base beer Bretta Weisse sometime.

 

 

375 mL bottle. Mostly clear golden body with a fizzy and fleeting white head. Smells of wheaty cereal grains, tangerine, and oak. Tastes of grainy wheat with a little bit of an orange and lemon tartness. Oak tempers it. Finishes with more wheat. Medium light body. Simple and pleasant. It doesn't have a huge fruit character, which I'm fine with. Incorporated well.

 

 

Berliner weisse-style wheat beer fermented with tangerines, aged in French oak barrels and featuring brettanomyces and lactic acid bacteria; 6.2% abv... Lotsa sediment... Big tangerine on the nose; taste is equal parts dry yeasty wood with lactic funk and tangerine with a bitter lime edge... Not quite my cup of tea, but I'm not a big fan of "orange" flavors in most beers - got this just because I loved their Bretta Blanc and Brambling Bones... Probably a grand slam if you're more partial to the tangerine-orange essence...

An interesting, refreshing beer. Pours a pretty orangey color - like tangerine, and there is quite a bit of citrus pulp floating in the liquid, which settles at the bottom after a minute or two.

I don't get much fragrance. Maybe an ever so slight citrus aroma. I found that swishing the beer around does help create a more pronounced tangerine aroma, but it's still very mild. It's almost a neutral fragrance. A bit disappointing in that regard.

The flavor has plenty of tartness, almost no sweetness. It's quite dry at the finish, leaving just sourness in the aftertaste. It's fine, but it doesn't really stand out for me. Mouthfeel is medium; carbonation is pretty active.

I'm not a fan of wheat beers, so perhaps the fact that this is a wheat beer at heart has something to do with my lukewarm appreciation of it. I'm enjoying this one, would happily accept one at a social gathering, but wouldn't go out of my way to purchase it.

375 ml bottle into a tulip glass.

Pours a crystal clear golden color with a small effervescent white head. Settles into a thin ring.

The aroma is acidic and tart, with lots of Brett funk. Mildly citrusy.

The flavor brings loads of citrus notes; lemon, grapefruit and tangerines. Tart, acidic, and funky as hell. There's some grassiness and oak on the finish.

The feel is medium-light bodied with lively carbonation. Very crisp and dry.

Overall, this is a very good wild ale. The tangerine notes get buried behind all the other citrus flavors, but it's nicely tart and there's a plethora of Brett funk.

 

375 ml bottle

Appearance: Slightly cloudy straw yellow color with faint orange undertones. The beer has a medium-sized white head that slowly faded with nice lacing. Pretty good looking wild ale.

Smell: Moderate hay/grassy notes, mild barnyard funk and citrus notes.

Taste: Moderate citrus notes, moderate barnyard funk along with some grassy/hay notes. I also got a touch of leather in the taste profile. The beer has a dry finish starting with some tart citrus notes and ending with some hay and oak notes. .

Mouth-feel: Light-bodied with a medium level of carbonation. The beer has a nice spritzy mouthfeel.

Overall: A good wild ale. The tangerines add a tart citrus note rather than a sweetness to the beer. The finish is dry and clean and the flavor elements play well with each other.