Ziggurat
Breakside Brewery - SE Taproom

wildly interesting and now incredibly mature blended brett beer aged in gin and pinot noir barrels, man breakside never ceases to amaze me with this stuff, best in class most of the time. not a whole lot to look at here, its one of the paper bag wrapped bottles and it pours a sort of muted sleepy golden, some fizz to it but a fast rising and receding white head, plenty of sediment towards the bottom. it smells funky, lots of brett and the only sourness is clean and lactic, some mild citrus too it supporting the obvious gin botanical notes, huge oak profile here, both white and red wine aspects, vanilla, kumquat, sour cherry, golden raisin, and horsey farmy weirdness on the ferment. the flavor is a little sharper than the nose, more acid than i could smell, but still very brett driven, the fermentation profile on this overall is complex, mixed, old, and wrapped up with a lot of oak. the gin is in front of the wine for me, spruce and juniper and lime notes to it, i also get some stronger almost vaporous alcohol, as well as a light toasted aspect from the grain that hits at the same moment. sweetness from the red wine, tannins too, and then some slightly oxidized malt, surprised at this with the amount of brett popping off here. medium bodied, decent carbonation but a little less than it seems to want, and the gin coming out more and more as it warms, almost medicinal, but surprisingly compatible with the wine. real complex funky beer here, some really mature elements, nothing quite like it, but maybe not meant to cellar forever...

Overly complicated and muddled, this is an interesting sour that breaks the mold. Not a sour for prolonged sipping, it has a strong tannin/grape flavor, combined with a dry heat.

A couple of notes about the packaging one, don't grab without holding the bottom, paper is slick and there is no bottom so the bottle can slide right out, had a close call. Second, the art on the bottle is beautiful! Cloudy orangey yellow body with lazy lacing and collar. Tons of rustic wood and brett, with white wine, gin, funk, lemon, flowers, and barrel must. Taste takes all of that and adds grains, wild yeast, coriander, slight red currant, hibiscus and hay. Very delicate, full of wood tannins, funk, and wild yeast in the feel. Best brett beer I have had in a long time, expressive but not overpowering

 

From the brewer: “For this blend, we selected 13 casks from our wood cellar, with the goal of producing a summery Brett-forward beer with vivid herbal undertones. The majority of the barrels contained a spontaneously-fermented wheat beer that spent its entire ‘life cycle’ in wood. Rounding it out are some of our favorite former gin and Pinot Noir casks, many that have been in our barrel program for over 5 years.”

From a 500ml bottle:
A: pours a cloudy dark golden straw, with head that quickly dissipated, leaving a thin ring and little lacing.
S: Lemon zest, coriander, chamomile, oak.
T: Early pour was med-high tartness, later pour with the sediment mutes the tartness a bit. Complex notes of sour apricot, rustic grain, toasted oak, funk.
M: Med-high viscosity, med-low carb.
O: Very nicely blended, with complexity that keeps you interested and refreshing enough to beg for another sip.