Bullfrog Brewery Oud 15 Release

Yes, but unless you sell tickets for the event, this is really only possible when not a ton of people show up. The moment you have 500 people in line before the door even opens, the place of business is screwed.

 

Exactly.

In and out quickly - hard to happen when you have a ton of people in front of you.
Running smoothly - when you have a lot of people and the prospect of getting shut out, line cutting, etc.
Organized - this is always the topper because I am always amazed at how messed up these things can be with the classic line always being " we had no idea this was going to be so popular.". I guess a brewery is designed to make beer and that this falls through the crack somehow, but selling the beer after making it is kind of important. I think that the breweries actually want some of the forced chaos. Makes their beer seem something more than it actually is as a result of the craziness.

And then of course the obligatory "I got mine" so it was good.

Simple question, let's say people got in and out quick, etc. but got ZERO bottles. Still, a good release? And let's say hanging out, etc. is secondary to getting bottles. Still a good release?

 

They certainly seemed more prepared than some releases i've been to. They opened when they said they would. People in line were respectful of each other. They had a cash line and CC line. Bottles were bagged and ready to go and the line moved along at a decent pace. I'm not sure why this is even being debated. The "what ifs" don't matter cause they didn't happen. I guess haters gotta hate!

 

I actually attended the hardywood gbs release which was attended by a large amount of people, and it was run very smoothly like this was. They had 2 lines of people bottles were already boxed up and ready to go. They were organized and people were in and out quickly, so it can be done with a large turnout

 

Just out of curiosity... I'm wondering how many of the folks that made the release, or otherwise, have taken the opportunity to open one of the bottles they procured. We were fortunate enough to be able to share one of these at our table at Bullfrog with the gentleman I believe was the owner. Real real down to earth, nice guy. I thought it was wonderful. Very cherry forward and you sure as hell can't tell it's a 13-14% beer. Seriously tastes like 6%. Alcohol is ridiculously hidden. I'm anxious to see how this does when he enters it at the next GABF.

I also had a chance to try the gueuze...and it was very tasty.

 

At a sour tasting yesterday we drank oud 15 and jaspers back to back. it is crazy how similar the 2 brews are. For oud 15 being something that started out as a quad...you would never guess that. Its like all the residual maltiness you would expect in the quad has been completely transformed into sourness. I was not ready when i took a sip, it caught me off-guard and in a good way.

As it has already been stated, the alcohol is surprisingly masked for being "like 13%." I plan on popping a bottle soon to upload a review.

 

I had no idea it was a quad. lol It tastes nothing like a quad.

 

re-read the details of the original post of this thread


"A Flemish style sour ale initially brewed as a Belgian style quadruple ale, aged for two years in second generation red wine barrels that previously held Jaspers. Blended then steeped with Montmorency sour cherries and bottle conditioned with Belgian candi sugar. Oud 15 represents the culmination of 15 years of brewing, and is worthy of the commemoration."

 

Quick question.... How do you initially brew a beer as a Belgian style quadruple ale...and end with a Flemish style sour ale? lol

 

Barrel age it for multiple years, presumably.

 

That's the formula for transforming quads to flemish sours? I'm being serious...I don't know shit about how one arrives at a particular style. I'd figure if you wanted to make a flemish sour, you'd just, embark upon making one. i guess what I'm curious about is whether or not the finished product was the desired result, or an unintended consequence of something that went on while attempting to brew a quad.

 

Here is my average Joe explanation. Perhaps a pro brewer or someone to the wiser can chime in to correct me where I am wrong.

A flander's style ale can start off very similar in recipe formulation to a belgian. Where they differ is in the yeast and the characteristics that develop during fermentation/aging. Whereas a belgian quad or strong ale would ferment with a clean yeast strain and possibly maintain some residual malt/sweetness, the flanders continues to develop for quite a while due to the inclusion of brett, lacto, pedio and possibly other bugs.

The flanders style has those notes of cherry, acid and vinegar to varying degrees that develops with age depending on the concentration of the previously mentioned bugs, bacteria, etc. Essentially a brewer could start off make a belgian style anything: double, triple, quad and introduce the other bugs that mimic the conditions of a flanders to make a flanders style brew. In this case, the barrels that housed the bullfrog beer 'the jaspers' was used. The jaspers was a flander's red so the bugs that remained in the barrels helped turn this quad into more of a flander's style. The inclusion of the cherries just goes to show that they really wanted to drive home that sour cherry flavor found in the flander's style.

I guess you could argue that this beer isnt a flanders at all and it is just an american wild since it was not created in flanders, just made to mimic those conditions where the flander's style is brewed.

 

Thank you for the explanation. That being said, whatever you call it...shit's good.

 

That is something none of us will ever know unless Terry and Nate want to tell us how it all went down. However, knowing how Terry likes to experiment/be creative I could very well see him setting out with a plan of brewing a quad with the intention to barrel age it and transform it into a sort of imperial flanders. However, it is also very possibly that maybe they brewed a quad and were just not happy with the results.. too much residual sugar? and decided the best direction for the beer was to make it go wild and turn it into something better than their original intention.

Just all speculation, I honestly dont know.

 

I don't believe this has been mentioned yet but when I first read of this release I instantly thought of a beer I had the privilege to try a few years ago at the Farmers Cabinet in Philadelphia. There's one review of it on here but at the time it was billed as "Hawbaker's Sour Quad." Here's the review...http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25186/70019

The night I tried this brew was the last night of Philly Beer Week 2011. The bartender described it as "a beer Terry took with him on his way out the door at Bullfrog." It was described to me as a quad that wasn't coming together the way they wanted so Terry "threw some sour cherries in it" to make it something different altogether. Who knows how much of this is true?! The beer was really incredible that night and certainly memorable. I haven't cracked open a bottle from the release but I'm hoping it reminds me of that night with the potential of really exceeding my recollection.

Like I said, who knows if any of that is true? I could be remembering a few things differently too as it was almost two years ago. Still a pretty neat story and one of the reasons I was compelled to drive to the release Friday morning.

 

^^^^Interesting story, regardless of what happened. It'll be fun hearing people's input on this one as they get around to cracking a bottle.

 

My friend and I opened a bottle at the table and enjoyed it over the course of an hour. It's good stuff and tastes quite old already, in a positive way. It definitely has more malt character than Jaspers did around that release, showing more leather, tobacco leaf, etc. It's pretty intense actually in that way, being fruit-forward but pleasantly full of aged malt character. Although not the best Bullfrog beer I've had it's way better than most American dark wild ales (think Cascade stuff or pretty much any Flanders style USA beer) as it's really integrated and the acedic properties are refined and kept to a minimum.

 

idiots drool 2

 

Unlike Idiot's Drool, this deserves to have been bottled and released to the public. It was cheaper too.

Surprisingly, only a fraction of the people showed up for this that showed up to gobble up that abomination. I actually have a couple friends out west that loved that shit. They took every bottle I had.