State Of Funk 2017 #4 - No Fakin' The Funk
Yazoo Brewing Company

You know, there ain't no fakin' the funk. To develop a beer that's worthy of Yazoo's State of Funk series, it takes a lot of patience, barrels, fruit and grain to make it into this echelon of pucker. The heavy employment of Tennessee oats and wheat, pink guava and fifteen months goes into the forth installment for 2017.

Pale gold and with a tinge of burnt orange. the suspended haze slides underneath of spritzy and spotty froth. Citrus, cider, wine and tropical fruit come with an earthen and weathered funk. Supple sweetness grazes the tongue with subtle hints of sourdough, taffy and hard sour candies.

But the sweetness breaks apart early and allows for a fruity middle palate to lay tracks of crabapple, pear, guava, grapefruit, orange peel, pineapple and white grape on the tongue. As the peppery earth character pulls from the aroma funk, its spicy taste is vinous, slightly vinegar-like and piquant with gooseberry, peppercorn and hay. Finishing with a slightly bitter and briny character, notions of sea water and white grapefruit peels come with that hay-like hoppiness late on the palate.

Light bodied and full of complexity, the final frame of flavor shows the juiciness of guava and wine with the cashew remnants of oak playing delicately on a brief aftertaste of sourdough, leather, citrus and brine.