Thicket
Side Project Brewing

 

 

 

Blend #1, on tap at the cellar. Nice and tart. Just funky enough. Wine barrels did this well. Quite enjoyable. Would really like to contract with Blend #2 eventually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is really thick (unlike that loser Robin). Yeah, this one is like pure and ripe like the day Bridgette Bardot was born. For reals, it’s just beautiful and it hits you well and good like Bruce Smith trying to make you fumble.

Hut! Hut! Hike!

Blend No. 2 (2018 release); consumed on 1/14/21

Pours a deep, jet-purple body with an airy half-finger of extra-pale mauve head, retreating quickly to a few paper-thin, spotty islands of cap, a sizeable, bubbly collar, and virtually no lacing beyond an occasional splotching isolated at various points around the glass.

Aroma shows fresh blackberry pits engaging with an increasingly rounded lactic funk, sharpwning over time while simultaneously embracing jammy blackberry and a deepening sweetness as the beer warms; old leather and wet stone peak over the middle into fresher oak and some grape-like tannins to close.

Taste ooens with suggestions of blackberry quijcly overtaken by lactic funk and a splintery oak profile; hints of dried peppercorn pair with a sturdy tannic structure into a mid-palate of barnyard funk and lemon zest, while tones of blackberry pits, lactic funk, and a brief burst of red berries mark the finish.

Mouthfeel brings a medium-light body with a fine, moderate-mild carbonation; a huge acidity is sharp and biting over the mid-palate, acetic and puckering though crisp into back end; a brief juiciness dries steadily with slight tannic textures on the finish.

Increasingly palatable as it warms, an overwhelming acidity remains dominant, relegating the blackberry to an underdeveloped background while largely glossing over the nuance of the funk; this wild ale is clearly designed competently and shows sporadic sparks of genuine depth, but a relentless imbalance ultimately takes away from the overall product.

Batch 2 - 375ml bottle - poured into a zin stem at 45°F.

Pours a deep blackberry purple - foggy anf crimson when held to the light, with a lasting sudsy pinkish collar. The occasional rising bubble can be seen. Not as saturated, but quite similar to a merlot in appearance.

Nose: Really wonderful blackberry presence here. That classic, instantly recognisable Side Project grist and culture character forms a simple foundation, with some toasty grain, bright acidity, and white oak, with subtle threads of hay, wheat, dusty leather, stone, petrichor, wet leaves, and lemon. The fruit is fresh, vibrant, and seedy, with an underlying jammy element. Reserved, but elegant.

Palate: Thicket greets the palate with a sharp zing of acidity, with a ton of lacto-driven lemon juice pucker, and a bit of acetic bite following. Like many fruited Side Project wilds, there's an underlying sweetness that seems like it's from both the malt as well as some fructose. The sweetness tuns parallel to, but beneath the sourness, taming it a bit. The blackberry character is unmistakable, buy leans towards the dry, seedy, unripe, tart end of the spectrum, rather than juicy or saturated. The acidity is aggressive, and thankfully, burns fast and bright, settling down quickly, and revealing some grains and a bit of oak. Some ripe berry pokes through, along with some wine-soaked oak, finishing quick, clean, and dry.

Mouthfeel/Body: Thicket is medium-light in body, wispy, fluid, and crisp. Puckering acidity up front causes some mouthwatering. Effervescence is fine, lively, amd sparkly. The finish is dry, with some very subtle oak tannins.

Overall: This is one of those wild ales that could have been stellar if it wasn't so acidic. The reviews are polarising - some saying it's jammy, others, that it's crazy sour. As it warms, some ripe berry sweetness does begin to emerge, which helps a lot, and it does become enjoyable, but the aggressive acidity holds it back and stifles the complexity. It's certainly fruit-forward, and very much Side Project, but it isn't the most balanced or complex offering. This one is good, but not amazing.

 

 

 

 

FFBL draft. Holy sour blackberries! This is what a sour is. I enjoy the thick and gloopy fruited stuff but this is a real sour. Tons of lacto on the nose and in the flavor. Nice blackberry flavor with a lot of sour. Puckering! Great fruited sour here.

 

 

Blend#2 on tap at SP STL pub