Five
Second District Brewing Co.

Second District Brewing Co. "Five"
750 ml green glass bottle, simply capped, and without production codes or freshness dating
$20 @ the brewery on 9/17/22

Notes: From their website: "Our annual anniversary blend. This year’s blend is comprised of Chardonnay barrel aged saison originally brewed in the waning moments of 2019, then laid to rest in oak from our friends at Maple Springs Winery in Berks Co. After two years of hibernation, we blended specific portions of each barrel and married them together along with fresh sour beer from our mixed fermentation program. The draft version is a refreshing yet complex Gueuze-like blend with lighter carbonation than its bottled counterpart and dripping with notes of nectarine and apricot, nuanced woodspice, vanilla, and a delightful cedary funk. 6.2% abv"

Notes via stream of consciousness: It's poured a mostly clear but still hazy golden body beneath a finger's width of bright white foam. In the nose I'm finding what appears to be Brettanomyces funk, grainy and sweetish malt, apple, apricot, white grape, oak, and a very light swirl of spiciness from the yeast. The Brett notes are metal, wet straw, leather, and damp earth but they're mild. On to the taste, they're certainly right-on in their description of this beer as everything mentioned applies. The apricot and nectarine, or peach, are certainly there, as are the cedar and woodspice. It's tart but not too tart. The Chardonnay comes through, so I'm guessing it was a fresh barrel, but the oak is mild so it must have been used several times prior ~ but keep in mind that there are two barrels involved and the Chardonnay may not even have been oaked. The Brettanomyces isn't nearly as strong in the flavor as the aroma suggests, which is a good thing in this case as it leaves this rather delicate beer refined. The malt is lightly sweetish, grainy, and a touch honeyish. It's somewhat grassy but I can't tell if that's from Pilsner malt or a small amount of hops. The apple is nice, and overall this is kind of reminiscent of a fallen apple in the field, one that's bruised and fermenting. Cedar is a good description for the woody spiciness. I'm also finding a very light note of lemon. In a way I'm surprised at how "clean" it is given what's there in terms of funkiness. Not that it's a supe funky beer, it's not, but there is some. This is one of those beers that you can sniff around at, nip and poke at, and basically make it last for an hour or more because there's a lot hidden in it rather than right on the surface. That's something that Belgian brewers love, the subtle nuances, and I'm sure that they'd all be proud to have produced this. It's not that bitter but the acidity and oaky dryness balance it and it finishes dry. I get the vanilla, apple, earth, and an almost cinnamon-like spiciness lingering. In the mouth it's medium-light, and perhaps leaning into light-medium, or maybe on the other side, light-medium leaning up into medium-light. The carbonation is delicate and fine-bubbled, and seemingly natural. It lends a gentle caress to the tongue in association with the acidity, and then softens to allow it to become velvety smooth. The head has held up well and it's left some very nice walls of lace but as is usually the case with barrel-aged beer it's not the greatest. Skewing its score as a barrel-aged beer it's done nicely. I have to confess that I wan't expecting this to be nearly as good as it is, and in my mind it's really stellar. If this had come from Belgium people would be falling over at how good it is, and then climbing over each other to score some. I don't normally mention the price of a beer in my reviews because it doesn't really have anything to do with the taste of the beer itself but given that this is only $20 a bottle I am surprised that it hadn't been completely wiped out before I was able to get one.