Victory Wild Devil

Did anyone else have issues with foam? Granted it's been several years since I've tried one, but I gave it two shots and as soon as the bottle was opened it just started spewing foam. These were bottles that rested overnight in the fridge. When it was all said and done I doubt I got more than 16 oz. of drinkable beer from each bottle.

 

There is lots of interesting discussion concerning Victory Wild Devil on this thread.

One of the discussion topics concerns aging a bottle of Victory Wild Devil and seeing whether the level of funk will increase. Does anybody know whether Wild Devil is bottle conditioned (i.e., has live yeast in the bottle)? If there is indeed live Brett yeast in the bottle then it is reasonable to expect that funk will increase with aging. I personally doubt that there is live yeast in the bottles. I would expect that Victory filtered this beer prior to packaging; filtering would eliminate the yeast from making it to the bottle.

There is an ‘interesting’ video about Victory Wild Devil on the Victory website. I would strongly recommend that you ignore Bill Covaleski when he states the term “sour” in this video (as regards Wild Devil); Brett really doesn’t produce “sour”. I also thought it was interesting that Adam Bartles mentioned the descriptor of “cherry pie” for the flavor/aroma of Wild Devil. I personally did not notice this aspect when I drank my pint at the Brewpub. I suppose another tasting is in order?

Cheers!

http://www.victorybeer.com/beers/wild-devil/

 

See, I didn't know that, always thought when I saw the word "wild" in the title is was sour...maybe I'm confusing funk with sour...

 

A lot of people do this. Sometimes wild means sour but not always...depends on the bugs/bacteria used. Usually brett is just a nice funkiness...once you start getting into lacto and pedio - those will give you sour acidic notes...

I think in this day and age, "wild" has come to mean anything other than traditional sacc yeast, really...

 

I think the last Wild Devil release (2010?) was in fact bottle conditioned.

I would be skeptical to think the new bottles are bottle conditioned anymore. I am wondering if the Helios bottle bombs, and their now subsequent filtering prior to bottling, perhaps carried over to the new Wild Devil bottles?

 

"I want to believe it has live stuff in there due to being corked instead of capped." The type of closure used does not directly correlate to whether a beer is bottle conditioned or not. From a Marketing & Sales perspective a cork enclosure generally correlates to pricing (i.e., a higher price per ounce).

Cheers!

 

I agree 100% with your statement.

In my prior post I considered stating exactly what you mentioned but I chose not to.

Cheers!

 

Yep, I got a nice yeasty swirl from the last pour of a recent bottle.

 

I sent an e-mail to Zach Miller (Victory QA person) asking whether Wild Devil is bottle conditioned.

I will report back if he responds to my query.

Cheers!

 

It could be an "insurance policy" but a brewery could also filter their beer and then bottle in 750 ml bottles with cage & cork enclosures; that packaging has a presentation of prestige (which equates to higher prices).

I sent an e-mail to Victory asking whether Wild Devil is bottle conditioned. I suppose we will know the answer soon?

Cheers!

 

Thanks for doing the legwork, Jack. I am interested in his response.

 

What.. you guys don't trust @Eriktheipaman and I?

We're all the QA you should need...

 

Still looking it a few bottles. Not seen it yet here. Is it still at the brewery?

Enjoy

 

Where are you located? i'm just above philly and have seen it at couple spots in the last week. My local wegmans had it as well as bottle shops in the are (trenton rd take out, phillys steaks)

 

It's possible you got acidity from 100% pure Brett cultures. Brett produces acetic acid in the presence of elevated levels of oxygen, some strains more then others.

Side note: I'm guessing this beer was fermented with a clean strain and Brett was added later? That would most likely produce the characteristic funky aroma. But if it was 100% Brett fermented, it may not produce much funk. The more you learn about Brett the more you'll see it's like Sacc's smarter cousin.

 

You guys may be 'right'. I have only had the 2014 Wild Devil on draft at the Victory Brewpub so I have no personal experience here.

As Shane posted previously (and something I knew about as well), there was an issue in the past where bottle conditioned Helios bottle exploded. Victory changed the overall Helios brewing process to eliminate bottle conditioning. Needless to say but the 750 ml bottles are sturdier so safe bottle conditioning is possible with Wild Devil; the only issue/concern would be gushers when opening an aged bottle conditioned version of Wild Devil.

Cheers!

 

“Side note: I'm guessing this beer was fermented with a clean strain and Brett was added later? That would most likely produce the characteristic funky aroma. But if it was 100% Brett fermented, it may not produce much funk.”

What you stated there was my ‘original’ thought process but in the Victory video Bill Covaleski only mentions the Brett strain wrt Wild Devil. Adam Bartles also mentioned the descriptor of “cherry pie” which ‘sounds’ like 100% Brett fermentation to me.

FWIW, the pint of Wild Devil I drank had an aspect of funk to my palate but my drinking experience was in the Victory Brewpub; I prefer to ‘evaluate’ beer in a more sedate environment (e.g., my home) for a better beer appreciation exercise.

I suppose I should have added the question of is this solely fermented with Brett yeast to my e-mail query to Zach Miller?

Cheers!

 

Curious what exactly you mean by this...

 

Thank you guys for the clarification. I suppose a poor choice of words would be the cause for this. Nothing like a BA scorning.