Dumb Funk Brett IPA
Parallel 49 Brewing Company

 

 

650ml bottle (now mit Citra!) - now that's a mental image I don't want to consider - Brettanomyces busting a move on a dance floor.

This beer pours a mostly clear, medium copper amber colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat chunky beige head, which leaves some rather thick and blotchy lace around the glass as it slowly and lazily subsides.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, generically funky Brett, some red apple and plain orange rind fruitiness, subtle wet leather, a mild earthy spiciness, and gentle leafy, weedy, and grassy green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, a touch of toasted cereal, some fairly laid-back musty and funky bacterial infection 'character', a mixed fruit salad bowl (mostly pome), further earthy yeastiness, and some still underwhelming leafy, herbal, and floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly tame (after that opening salvo) in its pooped-seeming frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and more or less smooth, as neither the Brett nor hops care to interfere here - what, we're not good enough for you? It finishes off-dry, the malt still a going concern, while the funky, fruity, and bitter essences waft about in their own special ways.

Overall, this one took me a bit of time to cotton up to, but in the end, it works out. The funk shows a modicum of restraint, and the robust, fruity, and bitter hop notes eventually blossom. Good stuff, even if I will continue to believe that the name of this offering is bang-on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appearance: A wonderfully clear coppery golden amber. Good developing head, slightly off-white loose with larger bubbles popping and leaving lava rock formations as it settles into some nice chunky lace and large patches of surface foam. Retention is pretty good.

Aromatics: Soapy but freshly washed apples, tangy and slightly sour funk with hints of lemon citrus and mowed grass.

Taste: My first reaction was "this is not an IPA", full of pomaceous fruity mash with sweet yeasty undertones, the bitterness comes in near the end and really acts as some quality backup dancers - not taking over the show, but there to perform after the main act.

Mouth: Carbonation is fairly subdued only the subtlest touches to the palate, leaving it mostly smooth and buttery. Nice medium body, bitter linger across the middle of the tongue.

Overall: I think this is my first brett - it is actually really nice (or dare I say FUNKY). So depending on how you define FUNK as a beer aesthetic, I think this is close to what I would imagine as a really good example. I think I'd prefer the term "groovy" though becaue funk has negative connotations as well. We'll have to wait and see - Great Canadian Beer Fest is this weekend in Victoria, so hopefully I will get more enlightenment from there. But overall it was a really good beer.

Pairing: oooh... this is such a different flavour profile than what I have had expereience with its "funiness" I think I would almost go carnival - corndog, funnel cake, mini donut, all of those sound really good and because the most prominent flavour in the beer is bitter (but slight) going a sweet or savoury route is probably best.

Parallel 49 Brewing 'Dumb Funk Brett IPA' @ 6.8% , served on cask* @ HOPoxia'16 & a 650 ml bottle purchased for $6
A-pour is gold from the cask/bottle to a dark golden/amber in the glass with a medium size white head leaving a spotty lace along the sampler/pint
S-damp , funky , brett
T-almost sweet tasting start , so much fruit IPA , funky brett finish
MF-ok carbonation , kinda full bodied
Ov- a funky brett beer , damn
prost LampertLand