Terra Incognita
Boulevard Brewing Co.

750ml bottle into a red wine glass.

4.0 Appearance: Dark chesnut with a 1 inch offwhite head. Dissipates quickly but retains some foam and leaves a big streak of lacing.

4.3 Smell: Clove belgian Dubbel aroma with some smoke. Brings back fond memories of my Belgian-only years. Some leathery, slightly sour aromas (not unpleasant). More bright and complex than the flavor.

I may sound ridiculous, but it actually smells like it was dry hopped with East Kent Goldings and fermented with brettanomyces. It's preposterous that the EKG ended up coming through, and maybe I'm imagining it, but I smell it and it works.

4.15 Taste: Well, I can tell the people behind Bourbon Barrel Quad had something to do with this! Lots of barrel presence, pretty straightforward otherwise; some tangy brett, slight brown sugar note, then a LOT of oak (smoothed out with some brett creaminess; don't get that in every brett beer, and always happy when I do).

Some reviews say this beer isn't very complex, and I think they're onto something... but that's not quite right in my opinion. The complexity is there (it straddles English and Belgian styles, it's outrageously--and welcomely--oak forward, and it has the esters and intriguing yeast flavors to satisfy any complexity lover), but it rarely manifests in one sip, and it doesn't really "sing together" if that makes sense.

To put it another way, I like, maybe even *love*, all these flavors, but only a few of them actually compliment each other. My brain keeps saying "slightly clove-y Belgian Dubbel with a bunch of whiskey barrel and some light creamy/tangy brett" because those all work. There's more here, but it's not really... doing anything. At least that's my experience of it.

A side note about "wild ale," the "light brett" isn't like "this is barely a wild ale!" light; if you've never tasted brettanomyces fermented beers, you'll be very confused and surprised by the flavor of Terra Incognita. It's light in that it has none of the brett dirt flavor, no crazy barnyard or basement flavors/aromas. Just a tang and creaminess that are emphatically brett. In other words, they either flash pasteurized it before it flourished beyond this point, or didn't use very much (?), or it hasn't had enough time to be all those crazy things brett can be. For me, it works awesome in the beer.

4.0 Mouthfeel: Good. Not thick, but full side of medium bodied. Creamy finish emboldened by alcohol heat. No dryness but no chalky / sugary b.s. either. Solid.

4.25 Overall: Puts me in mind of Marin Old Dipsea w/ Brett (barleywine), a fantastic beer that holds only good memories for me. It's not a brain destroying complexity fest like better Fantome beers or amazingly well thought out and executed barrel aged beers (see Goose Island, Firestone Walker, 50/50, and the still underrated barrel program of Clown Shoes). But it is delicious. Easily worth $15~20, and should satisfy all fans of barrel forward brett beers.

 

750 ml corked & caged bottle, from Vinmonopolet, Nettbutikken. ABV is 8.5%. Very dark brown colour, nearly black, with a huge beige head. Aroma of red wine vinegar, brettanomyces and oak. The flavour is not vinegary, but very oaky and moderately spicy, with a warming mouthfeel.

 

 

They all can't be zingers. I'm not sure if the one I had was a bit out of date but it was pretty poor. I actually threwup after the second glass. It's hard for me to put a real review on this after vomiting. I'll steer clear of this one.

L: Poured from a bottle to a tulip glass. Had a dark brown color and a thick texture. There was a massive, creamy, very long-lasting head. Excellent lacing. A good-looking beer.

S: A decent enough aroma of malt, hops, and a lot of dark fruit.

T: Tasted of some mild yeast notes, a bit of hops (not as much as expected), some malt, a good amount of dark fruit (plums, in particular), a hint of chocolate, and a tinge of the advertised whiskey. A solid, if somewhat uneven flavor. Not quite as aggressive as it should be, but not bad.

F: A well-carbonated beer with a very smooth finish. Medium-bodied.

O: This is an uneven beer in some respects, but it's still very much worth a look. The low score is a little perplexing.

Pours a color that is somewhere between a tawny red and brown with a light brown two-finger head. Aroma of dark fruit, oak and alcohol. Taste is somewhat boozy with light wood and dark fruit flavors. Bourbon and malt flavors start to come out as the the beer warms. Medium bodied. 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the 2013 version of the Terra Incognita, having been brewed, fermented, aged and packaged at Boulevard. The 2014 version, on the other hand, was brewed, fermented, aged and packaged at Sierra Nevada.

From a 750 mL bottle, the "best by" date is February of 2015; I'm not entirely sure how the aging of one year beyond its "best by" date will affect the quality of this beer, but I bought it because it was a retired brew and my liquor store only had one left in stock gathering dust on the back of a shelf.

Look: Massive light tan khaki head, about 3 fingers, and very frothy and dense, which lingers for a couple of minutes before settling into a creamy film above a very dark, nearly opaque coffee-brown body. Produces large clumps of heavy lacing.

Smell: Mellow and subtle at first, but it slowly becomes more potent and boozy as the beer warms up. Some muddy earthiness and dark malts up front with a faint essence of raspberry and browned, rotting apple. Tons of spices in the background along with some savory fruity tartness and a bit of funk. Traces of bourbon barrel and grainy hops are present as well.

Taste: Dry earth, bitter dark chocolate, roasted nuts, and toasted malts, with fruity wine and sour plum filling in the gaps. Some tart berry notes and vanilla surround everything, with raisins and molasses hitting the back, while bitter hops and oak come through strongly at the end. Slightly sour throughout with hints of bourbon and wine barrel and some funk.

Feel: Silky and smooth with a medium body and a perfect amount of tingly carbonation. Tangy and tart with some bitterness towards the end, and closing out with a dry, crisp finish.

It also seemed quite boozy for only 8.5%, and in fact it was much more inebriating than any other beer that I’ve had in this ABV range. Very smooth in terms of taste and feel, yet very inebriating; it really sneaks up on you. Although at first I suspected this may have been due to the fact that it had aged a year past its "best by" date, I later found out from the Ambassador Brewer at Boulevard Brewing Company that this was likely not the case:

“We see a negligible increase in alcohol during bottle conditioning, usually less than .5 ABV, but further aging of this beer or our other bottle conditioned beers will not result in a noticeably higher ABV.”

Overall: I really liked this one. It gave off sort of a "dark and heavy" vibe with varying degrees of subtle complexity, and yet the whole thing felt very light and smooth and easy-drinking. While it was certainly boozy in taste and feel, the inebriating effect that it had on me made it seem as if it had had a much higher ABV, and yet it went down so smoothly; very pleasant experience. I should also mention that this beer looked pretty awesome, and the colossal head on this thing was very satisfying. Overall, the 2013 Terra Incognita beautifully combines the sour, barrel-aged, hop, and malt notes, with the malts up front, the hops on the finish, the barrel-aged hiding beneath everything, and the sour surrounding it all.

 

 

 

 

 

P: Nice opaque brown, not much head, but what there is, is a khaki colour. Nice lacing on the glass.
A: Musty grape, chocolate, bourbon, some malt.
T: Wow, complexed tastes. Chocolate, wine, bourbon, sweet molasses, toasted malt.
M: Amazing chunky, bold, perfectly carbonated, small perfectly placed bitterness.
O: This has to be one of THE most interesting amd exciting beers I've had in some time. Stout and an IPA marriage. Well done Sierra & Boulevard!!!