Mondegreen
Finback Brewery - Glendale

 

 

 

huge thanks to my brother for hooking this bottle up, alongside some other special finback brews. this one is a pils base aged in oak with brett, and its done in collaboration with rockwell. this is a style i am obsessed with right now, and something we see done wrong as often as it is right, and trust me this is right, as good as it gets for a number of reasons. i love the base beer for one, its crisp, hoppy, modern, and dry, and its obvious this started off as fairly complete lager, i can smell and taste the yeast, the pils malt still seems fresh, and the snappy hops are fully intact despite it being aged, really solid probably just in that form. the oak brings a lot to this heady sunny colored brew, soft vanilla and honey notes from it, light white wine too, almost seems like new oak, not musty and ancient and wet like sometimes it can be, its firmer, crisper, maybe less permeable, but it does something quite unique to the base beer, takes the edges off, sweetens is slightly, and obviously provides an arena for the brett to do its thing. the brett here is farmy and well developed, but not so pungent it totally displaces the lager yeast, i can smell and taste them both working together in this. definitely a rustic funkiness, very old world to me, wet animal, burlap, straw and hay. one thing that i think enhances all of this and is just genius is the green glass bottle. its so intentional, not even sure i have seen a finback beer in this glass before, but its brilliant to let it more light, the little bit of oxidation here is flattering, its obviously fueled the brett development, and it seems even more european and saison-esque to me because of it, so smart! i love everything about this, the funk level, the grassy hops, the quality of the base beer, the wood profile, and the effervescence it pops with. its so refreshing and drinkable i think i could do several bottles on my own, but its too special to drink like that. maybe my favorite finback beer ever, and certainly a memorable one. blew my mind! hope i get to drink this again someday...