Go to Brett Beer?

Your drinking experience with Rayon Vert is a total opposite of mine. I purchased a four pack some time ago (February?). Over a period of 1-2 months I drank those four beers. The first beer (still fresh) had a noticeable Brett funkiness to it. The last beer (with a couple of months of age) had an even more noticeable Brett funkiness to it.

Cheers!

 

anything more than a year should be good. i had a 2010 and 2011 last month and it was definitely much more noticeable in the 2010, but still present in the 2011. i have a 2009 that i'm saving for a 5 year vertical. really looking forward to that.

 

“anything more than a year should be good.” Thanks for that input!

Cheers!

 

Why do you assume it was suppose to be sour?

 

Crooked Stave's WWB Brett beers have all been good...and they're all very different from one another, too.
The Yellow, in particular, is one I really enjoy.
Their new version of Petit Sour is also very good.

 

Because every beer that I have had classified as an "American Wild Ale" has been sour.

 

Brett on its own does not produce sour characteristics. This misunderstanding is common because almost all commercial beers that contain Brett are soured with bacteria as well, so unfortunately people associate brett with sour beers.

 

I don't know anyone who thinks beers that contain Brett are soured. However, most people think the beer style "American Wild Ale" are soured generally because of the sour mash technique used in most wilds.

Edit: I guess although Most American Wilds are sour, there are some Brett beers in there with no sourness. i.e., Brux and Lips of Faith Brett

 

saison brett
WWB(insert color here)
funkwerks brett dream
haven't pulled the trigger on my funkwerks yet, but the sb and wwbb and wwby were phenoms.

 

I guess I am confused then. If everyone knows Brett doesn't produce sour in beer and Brett is a wild yeast, why are people blindsided by this American Wild Ale not being sour. There is nothing in that style that says it has to be sour. There just aren't that many commercial all brett beers, and the main one people know about (Sanctification) uses bacteria to make it sour. I don't think they could put this beer in any other category either. Hopefully Brux will help with the stereotyping of AWAs.

 

Most wilds do not use a sour mash technique.

 

I believe it was the older version of Biere de Mars from New Belgium that opened my eyes to realize that Brett doesn't have to be sour. It CAN, but they two are mutually exclusive.
I wouldn't be shocked if Brett beers became their own major category with subgroupings in the next few years.

 

Nearly every beer in the category is sour, so yes most AWA's are sour.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/171

 

I agree that it could very well help with the stereotyping. I will freely admit I wrongly assumed AWA's were all sour because 99% of them are from DDG and the LA's to RRs, Cascades and Allagash and the Bruery.

 

He is just saying that sour mash is one technique for souring, but most of the beers in that category probably are not soured using that method. Sour mash is a way of souring the wort before the boil and main fermentation. Generally they are soured by adding bacteria after the main fermentation and then aged for an extended period of time.

 

Yes, a lot of them are sour, but very few use a sour mash most use bacteria to get the sour flavor.

 

My understanding is that Brett contributes mostly barnyard and horse blanket. Sourness comes from Lacto and other bugs. I'm not a chemical biologist though.

 

Could be because some people thought the sour mashing or addition of sour bacteria was a key part of the AWA style. The post below sums up my feelings as well in that Brett should be it's own major category.

 

Sourness in beer generally is produced by lactobacillus and pediococcus bacteria. The vinegar characteristics in some beers is created by acetobacter bacteria. When Brettanomyces is added and aged for an extended period of time, it produces the "funk" characteristics you mentioned.

 

I think it is a misunderstanding of the category or "style" BA created. There is often no good way to categorize many of these beers, so this is a catch all category in which 95% tend to be sour. If they create a new category for brett beers such as this and keep the American Wild Ale, then the wild in AWA is completely worthless as a technical description of the beers within it.