J Wakefield in May

I enjoyed FB's Berliners during MBCP day and their 2nd Anniversary. I have no idea how those stack up against the lounge, but I found them to be quite good. Especially the key lime berliner.

 

Bill McFee, yes. And yeah, you're definitely correct, we probably won't be seeing any berliners from them. I don't think Bill or Kevin are interested in veering from the Belgian mindset, which is fine anyway since they're still barrel aging sours (which Bill says he refuses to call lambics, so I won't use the L word).

I think the Buddha Lounge crushes Berliners right now. By far, the best in South Florida. That was my point before about Wakefield's berliners. They're very good, and being in the top 5 down here in Berliners is admirable. He's almost top 3, and that's saying a lot. And it's only going to get better as new brewers are opening up.

I was corrected separately though, the Buddha Lounge WAS the first area down here to do Berliners, but Kevin wasn't the original person doing them at the Buddha.

 

The Lounge berliners are small batch and are amazing. It's hard to compare though since there's such a difference in the brew size, but I agree, the Brewery berliners are very good as well.

 

I went to cycle today and got there at like 2pm. No more ecto. I heard it was like a 5 gallon batch.

 

I thought JWB and MIA stole the show at the weisse bash today

 

I agree with Lenny. While it was fun to try all the varieties from different breweries, there was no contest with JWB and MIA (to a lesser extent)

 

MIA is crushing it in the Berliner department right now!

 

After reading up on all this drama, it just seems like a lose/lose for both parties. I think JWB puts out some really good beer, but I think the hype and expectations preceding the opening of the brewery were nearly impossible to live up to. Dialing in the procedures and processes on a new (and big) 15 bbl system takes time and isn't accomplished overnight. And to be fair, you guys don't have behind the scenes access to see what he is working with in terms of a brewery startup (regulations, legal compliance, distributor relations, human resources, working capital, etc) over the past 8 months. Starting up a business is no joke, and it really is unfair to bash on the beer and the business unless you've started up a brewery yourself.

If you're dissatisfied with you're membership, how you make a statement is walking or calling in and asking for you're money back. That's typically how business is handled, if you are not satisfied with a product you return it in exchange for money paid. At that point in time you can list you're grievances and possibly help the business improve, but bitching incessantly over the internet just seems more tantrumatic and less pragmatic than anything. Weigh in with you're dollar, it goes a lot further than you're words.

 

Well...yes and no. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/39158/181890/

 

I've had S'tart a couple of times. It's a sour beer but is made with Belgian yeast. I've never known a Berliner (named after Berlin, Germany where Weisse beer has sour flavors added) with Belgian yeast. It's not a Lambic either according to Bill McFee the owner.

 

Actually the flavors aren't sour. The sourness usually comes from the Lacto.

 

There is no lacto in S*Tart

 

The description says its soured with lactobacillus!

 

@TequilaSauer , Didn't Bill say he wasn't going to use Lacto in it??

 

To me, it tastes like a heavy amount of acidulated malt as the souring component. I've seen malt bills of ~20% acidulated malt with proper water chemistry produce Berliners, Gose, etc. This way, no bacteria worries in the brewery. Thats just my personal take on it, idk what method of souring they actually employ. Acidulated malt vs. sour mash vs. kettle souring vs. lactobacillus bacteria fermentation...

 

All I know is that I vaguely remember talking to Bill while S*Tart was still in the tanks and he said it wasn't a bacterial souring method, but we were drinking, so who knows...

 

So back to Wakefield, anyone hearing anything on what the style of beer that OG Members Party bottle will be?

 

I texted Bill and Matt for verification of everything because I remember hearing something like that too. It's kettle soured so there is a short lacto fermentation period, but the lacto is then boiled off and killed so that it's not active when we get it.

 

We were actually just talking to Bill about this a week ago at a bottleshare. He's in the process of doing "lambics" (S'Tart is not a lambic) but as they're not from the region of Brussels where traditional lambics are done, and since that's all through spontaneous fermentation, it's really impossible to do a lambic in the same way, so he refuses to call them as such. But they would be about as close to a real lambic as possible without moving the brewery to Belgium.