Bruery 2016 RS/HS Allocations

Wait, who says its infected? The berry in there is already a tart berry. Maybe with time its getting some tart flavors from it so they are just giving people a heads up.

@BruerJoel - Any comment?

 

Depends on the type of infection I'm sure. I had a regular 7-Swans last year and it was definitely infected. I do not like sours and I hated it, but my wife (who does like sours) thought it was great.

My uncle used to work at a foundry. He'd always say, "It's not rust, it's oxidation... and it's a feature you pay extra for!"

 

They let people go in "eyes open" and they sold them all. Seems fair to me.

 

From their Facebook:

It was aged in bourbon barrels, which is not a barrel type that is naturally inclined to "reveal sour notes." Additionally, the original allocation description from November 2014 said nothing about it being sour. If there's a way to get sour notes from bourbon barrels without it being an infection, I'd love to hear it.

Or as we say in the software world, "It's a feature not a bug."

 

That was my understanding, gooseberry is tart like cranberry and will continue to develop a sour note as it sits. The barrel aging seems to have brought it out more. It's still good, just nothing like it was fresh. Few beers are though so I don't see any need to load the weapons and start burning anyone at the stake.

 

I'm missing your point @Xul - If a beer has a tart component to it to begin with, why wouldn't you assume it would start to turn sour?

And more importantly, why would they release an infected beer when all year long they've been pulling back every beer that has something wrong with it. (They just did this with Dodie)

Put away the pitchforks and have some faith in the system. At the end of the day if you don't want it, no one is forcing you to buy it.

 

Here at the Tasting Room trying Elvis BT and the DBBA Black Tuesday... my wife and I caved and bought their last bottle of 2 Turtle Doves. Going to save this one to open on our trip to SF in February. How do you guys like this beer?

 

Hey, Josh! The flavor is souring. We didn't find it undrinkable in the least - it's actually quite interesting. We did want to note the sour profile in the language and on the label before we extended the opportunity for members to purchase bottles.

 

Because there's a difference between a beer containing sour flavors and a beer containing bacteria that are going to continue to produce acidity in the future. When you package a beer with sour flavors but no active bacteria, yeah, the perception of sourness can increase over time as other flavors fade, but a two year old beer doesn't generally become "sour as hell" (as @RDMII put it) due simply to the presence of a tart fruit.

Even if it was due to the fruit, why would the Bruery specifically say on Facebook that the sour flavors were derived from the barrel aging? If it's from the fruit, wouldn't they say "the fruit's tartness has continued to evolve and increase as the beer has aged" or some other euphemism for "we swear it's not infected"?

And considering the fact that the production and packaging timeline were right in the heart of the Bruery's infection problems, it doesn't seem like a huge mental stretch to guess at an infection.

I can come up with a variety of possible reasons, most of them centering on customer ignorance.

 

This is right. Though, maybe they are staying away from using language like "infected" because they think the beer is actually tasting good. I mean, calling a beer "infected" in the first place is only because some additional fermentation process has created some nasty flavor profile, etc. Nobody would call Orval infected, right?

Maybe they should directly say that the beer is souring rather than saying "revealing sour notes." The difference might not seem that big, so maybe who cares, but I'm sure there are some people that would be interested in knowing that the beer is actively changing and has the potential to get some nastier flavors that often come with unexpected "souring."

In any case, I'm guessing the beer is at least palatable... just a little confused with the language.

 

Should be 50% off at least.

 

Great Lakes attempted to disguise infected BA Christmas Ale by saying it "developed unique and interesting flavors!!!!" last year haha

 

I've had a lot of 7 Swans as it's my favorite Bruery beer (bought a case when I could) never had a hint of infection. I'll open one tonight to confirm this.

 

Thanks for the insight

 

I had a 7-Swans last week that was just fine, so I'm guessing my infected one was an anomaly or at least a minority.

 

Doesn't Bruery use pasteurized fruit puree anyway? I'm guessing infection that they feel results in a product that they generally approve of, ie the souring has a positive effect. Of course taste is subjective, so a lot won't like it. I'll give it to them for at least being up front about it being sour.

 

By the way, Shake This is absolutely fantastic... if they released that they'd be in Hypetown, USA.

 

+1 on this. That was awesome!

 

yea when i was ready about it today it sounded like it'd be either awesome or undrinkable

is it anything like their creamiscle beer from 2013?