Wild Mind Artisanal Ales

Less than 40 bottles left. No line.

 

Anyone know if wind in the willows sold out today?

 

I stopped by close to 5pm on Saturday, and there were plenty of bottles in the cooler.
Water main construction has the area all tore up, including Pillsbury Ave in front.

 

From Facebook:
It’s time to celebrate two years of wild, wild fun at Wild Mind Artisan Ales. We’re hosting Second Round, our anniversary party, on Saturday, August 4 from 2-8pm. Below are all the details you need to party properly.

All speciality beers are $5 and require the purchase of a 10 oz tasting glass, which is available for $5 at the check-in booth immediately as you enter if you are paying cash or you can use a credit card at the tasting room registers. We’ll have a beer tent and our tap van set up in the parking lot. Both are cash only, but you can also buy beer tickets at the tasting room bar inside.

The below speciality beers will be available outside only:
**Second Round: Molten Lava Cake - Imperial stout conditioned on cocoa nibs, French sea salt, vanilla beans, and cinnamon before aging in rye whiskey barrels
**Sour Fortunella - A spontaneous lambic-style ale aged in foeders for one year then transferred to French cognac barrels where it was refermented on kumquats for six months.
**Pash Bash - Passionfruit & dragonfruit sour
Slow Motion Riot - Super Fruited Pink Guava IPA
**Molten Lava Firkin - (TBD)
**Slow Motion Riot Firkin - Toasted coconut
**Puff The Passion Dragon - Sour IPA with dragonfruit and passionfruit
**Arillus - Pomegranate sour
** La Reine - Rhubarb American wild ale with blueberries and boysenberries

Our regular taplist will also be available in the tasting room. The outside stations will be open until beer runs out or 8:00 pm.

Bottle Releases:
We’ll be selling bottles of Second Round: Molten Lava Cake stout during the event. This imperial stout was brewed with toasted wheat and oats and conditioned on cocoa nibs, French sea salt, vanilla beans, and cinnamon before aging in rye whiskey barrels for six months. Cost is $20 per 750ml bottle. Limit 2.

We’ll also be releasing the 2018 blend of Pash Bash, a passionfruit and dragonfruit sour with a wild, complex base to complement the tart, tropical fruits. One of our most popular beers to date, Pash Bash aged on more than 700 pounds of passionfruit and dragonfruit to create a lightly tart, vibrantly pink beast of a sour that's as beautiful as it is refreshing. Cost is $22 per 750ml bottle. Limit 2.

Crowler Release:
Slow Motion Riot - Brewed with one pound of pink guava puree per gallon, this special crowler release has notes of overripe mango and grapefruit pith to accompany the tartness of the guava. This lucid IPA was double dry-hopped with a blend of Motueka, Citra, and Amarillo for added bitter and citrus flavor.

All bottles and crowlers will be released at 2pm at a designated tent onsite, where cash and credit cards are accepted. All limits are subject to change, at anytime, without advanced warning. No reservations, online sales, or phone sales. (FBS members can pick up their pre-purchased bottles at the tent, as well.) All bottles are first come, first serve.

Food:
This year we will have two food options: Arcane Kitchen and Peeps Hotbox.

Live Music:
2pm // Silverback Colony
4pm // Astronomique
6pm // Sean Anonymous

See you out there!

 

That's a great list. Wish I could make it. Very thankful for the FBS perk though!

 

I've been somewhat less than impressed with WM's stouts in the past but the Molten Lava does certainly sound intriguing. The Fortunella and Reine sound outstanding. Some of their more recent sours have had some nice funk and I hope that trend continues as they start pulling more foeder aged and spontaneous fermented beer from tanks.

 

C'mon Wild Mind, did every second anniversary beer need to be propped up on a flavorings crutch? Believe it or not, I'd drink your beer even if it weren't bright magenta. I'm sure at least some of those beers will prove quite tasty, but I'm also sure I'd say the same even if you eschewed the trendy gimmick ingredients. I know for certain this wasn't your vision from two years ago.

 

To be fair, adding fruit to lambic or other sour/mixed fermentation beer isn't exactly a new or strictly trend seeking habit. Traditional Belgian lambic producers have long made fruit lambics. I don't disagree with your point -- a straight forward brett saison or gueuze without fruit would be welcome -- but perhaps those will be part of the regular taplist they indicated would also be available.

 

I'm sure they are actually looking at what the demand is from their customers. I wouldn't be surprised if their fruited stuff sells out much faster than a lot of their other stuff.

Also, shhhhhh. I don't want to deal with hoards of people to spend money I don't want to be spending.

 

Speaking of unfruited beer and brett saison- right now they have two Brett Pale ales, a Brett saison, a light rye Kvass, a pils, a dark farmhouse, and a foeder beer all on tap that don't have any fruit or that newfangled haze the kids are always clamoring for. If you look at their tap menu and can't find something you like right now then you should give up at beer, IMO.

Also, it would be pretty tough for a 2 year old brewery to make a gueuze blend, since that would require 3-year old lambic, by definition, but if they don't have one ready by the next anniversary I'll grab my pitchfork and march with you guys.

 

I want a case of gueuze to take to my cabin now

 

Total wine has had The Bruery Rueuze Gueuze on stupid clearance prices. You can order online and pick up in store (as I did) but you may have to look at a few different locations to find what you want.

 

Every location that has it in stock seems to be selling it at $19.99 online. Not sure if it's different when you actually grab it in the store. Other selections by them are listed as $3.99.

 

Anyone go? How are the beers?

 

Sour Fortunella would've been good, perhaps very good, but it was served almost completely flat, and that ruined it for me. I don't think the kumquats quite worked as a lambic fruit (locally grown fruit would make much more sense with something as terroir-oriented as lambic-type beer), but the base beer seemed good enough to overcome that deficiency.

La Reine had an odd, strong, and unexpected black tea-like quality. I had mixed feelings about it, but it was interesting.

Pash Bash was the best of the three I tried, derivative though it was. I'm assuming it's a "slow sour" (to my knowledge Wild Mind doesn't do quick sours), but it functioned like a J. Wakefield-esque Florida Weisse, albeit a much better one than most of that sort we get around here.

I didn't try it, but everyone else in my group was disappointed with Second Round: Molten Lava Cake. Most of my group planned on walking out with two bottles of it and ended up walking out with zero.

An unexpected highlight was that Wild Mind busted out some of its early-days bottles for sale, so there was some very interesting beer available from the glory days before Wild Mind embraced trendiness/fads.

 

Which beers were these?

 

Oh my lord we get it. I’m starting to wonder if you know how beer should taste.

Setting aside the beers of theirs I know you wouldn’t like, Wild Mind’s beer has improved markedly over time. Their early beer was mediocre. The depth and funk continues to develop, as does their blending ability and balance of flavor in sours (fruited and not).

As for trends, it’s almost like they want to sell a lot of beer so they can keep brewing and aging sours. Weird, right?

 

Let's see, from memory, they had Wind in the Willows, Gardner's Bounty, Dante, and Golden Horizon, all of which I'm guessing did not sell out. They also had Spontane and Bramble Spontane, which are newer, but those sold out quickly. There were several others as well that aren't coming to mind.

 

I went with the intention of possibly getting two Molten Lava Cakes. I bought one and still not sure if it was worth it for the price. I did think the cask version of the Lava Cake with cherry and cinnamon sticks was really good though.

 

Sour Fortunella was great. The cognac sweetness and delicate kumquat flavor was awesome. It's interesting that someone with such an appreciation for historical styles of beer doesn't realize that many lambics are traditionally served flat or near flat.

La Reine was great too, very fruity and jammy (more intense fruit in this one than Pash Bash, IMO). No odd off flavors to report.

Pash Bash was good but the most acidic of the three, so I only had one glass of that.

The Lava Cake was leaps and bounds better than any stout that WM has released previously (an area they've struggled). It was chocolatey and had decent body, but of course not the super thick body of say a Toppling Goliath BA stout if that's more your style. Just a hint of barrel, but that's to be expected after only aging for 6 months.

I'm not entirely sure if you have devolved into complete satire at this point, but saying that Wild Mind had early 'glory days' is a head-scratcher. And of course, once again, if you had wanted a Pils, straight foeder sour, or some other non-fruited beer, they were pouring their entire regular tap list inside.