Hi everyone! As english is not my mother tongue, sometimes I have problems with the english specific vocabulary about beer. I like very much saison and sour ales and I have read or listened many times: "Wow this is really funky!" and I can´t understand what does it really mean, because my dictionary says tha funky means "coward or weak" and it doesnt feat with any flavour or smell I know... I thought that could be related with the funky music, but I don´t se any relation with beer and James Brown either... could someone help me out with this stuff? Thanks in advance and cheers!
"funky" usually refers to "musty" "basement" "barnyard" "earthy" aromas and flavors. the wild yeast brettanomyces is often responsible for funky aromas and flavors. personally, i think brettanomyces flavors range from "funky / musty" to "tangy" to "dirt" to "minerals" to "cologne-like". it's easier to taste it than understand it from reading, because it often is NOT as "barnyard" as you might expect. if you drink many sour beers and aren't sure which flavors are "funky", try some orval. the common flavor / aroma between orval and wild/sour ales will probably be from brettanomyces, and would be called "funky".
allright! thank you very much Pahn! I understand it perfectly now, musty, basement, barnyard, earthy... everything fix with my idea of saison and sour ales!
Haha shit my bad I didn't realize what your avatar and username were...it was way too late for me to be up last night when I posted that.
