Category Archives: Wild Ale

German sours


Posted by Aschwin de Wolf

Although the theme of this website does permit it, I have never published on German sour styles such as Berliner Weisse. But a recent visit to Portland’s Belmont Station rewarded me with no fewer than four sour German beers:  Bayerischer Bahnhof Berliner Style Weisse, Bayerischer Bahnhof Berliner Style Weisse Brettanomyces Lambicus, Dr. Fritz Briem’s 1809 Berliner Style Weisse, and Dr. Fritz Briem’s Piwo Grodziskie Grätzer Ale.

One of the intriguing theories about the origins of Berliner Weisse is that the style might have been brought to Germany by migrating Huguenots who were influenced by the sour reds and browns of Flanders — Belgian beer styles that have a rather complicated history themselves. As is virtually the rule with old beer styles, one can only speculate about how those ancient Berliner Weisse beers might have tasted, but beer writer Michael Jackson’s suggestion that traditionally these beers were buried in warm earth seems to indicate that the distinct lactic note may always have been a part of this style. Berliner Weisse (‘the Champagne of the North’) has survived but in terms of popularity it has been mostly replaced by sanitized bitter beer styles.

The Bayrischer Bahnhof Berliner Style Weisse beer that I tasted first has a low alcohol percentage of 3.0%, which is characteristic for the style. As far as bottle and label design is concerned, I will confine myself to the observation that German beers rarely excel in this area. Bayrischer Bahnhof Berliner Weisse pours a cloudy light golden color and has attractive crisp notes of peach, tropical fruits, wheat, and lactic acid. The refreshing dry lactic tart flavor gives way to a short Hefeweizen-like finish. Naturally, this beer is an easy drinker and I followed it with their Berliner Style Weisse Brettanomyces Lambicus release, which is a special edition of their classic style that received additional Brettanomyces Lambicus fermentation. This version produced an even bigger head after a vigorous pour, but also dissipated more quickly. The presence of brettanomyces is unmistakable in the aroma and it reduced the tropical complexity of the original version quite a bit. Although brettanomyces by itself produces little sourness, the presence of this yeast seems to amplify the lactic tartness of the beer by furthering drying it out, which is also evidenced by the thinner mouthfeel. In this case I think that the brettanomyces yeast took more away from the standard beer than it added, in particular the crisp fruity lactic notes. The finish is a little bit longer though.

Dr. Fritz Briem’s “historic” 1809 Berliner Style Weisse is quite a bit higher in alcohol (5%) and its production involved transferring the heated, un-boiled malt to open fermenters, after it was “pitched with yeast and lactic acid bacteria (isolated from malt) at 18°C.” The aroma suggests that wild yeast must have participated during the fermentation of this beer. This cloudy, yellow beer has a musty, honey-like aroma and is super carbonated. Whether intentional or not, there is little lactic tartness. Instead this beer is more similar to a traditional German wheat beer, albeit a little more rough around the edges. There was no finish to speak of.

Going by the label alone, Dr. Fritz Briem’s Piwo Grodziskie Grätzer with its sour mash and smoked malt looked quite appealing to me. My own readings of the native lambic literature support the idea that some lambic producers used smoked malt, and since Schlenkerla’s Märzen is one of the few non-lambic beers that really gets me excited, this obscure German style held great promise. The aroma of this golden, translucent beer certainly revealed its ingredients, although the smoke was not nearly as pronounced as I prefer. What struck me about this beer was how restrained all the different notes were; mild tartness, mild smoke, milt bitterness, and a nutty, medium-long finish. What surprised me the most was its smooth, cask/ESB-like mouthfeel. Although this beer turned out quite different from what I expected, it was the most refined and complex of the four sour Germans.

In traditional lambic, brettanomyces and lactic bacteria go hand in hand, but it was rather refreshing (literally!) to taste a wild beer (the standard Bayrischer Bahnhof Berliner Style Weisse) in which the emphasis was on the sour bacteria instead of the “brett.” I am personally at a loss to understand the contemporary preference for bitter over sour beers, but at least there are now numerous breweries experimenting with sour beer styles, and even uncovering some forgotten sour styles like Grätzer. The aim of resuscitating old, historical beer styles invariably produces debates about what the “real” or “authentic” style might have tasted like. The implicit fallacy, as recently discussed by Jeff Alworth, is that most beer styles were not made from scratch to conform to some kind of Platonic Ideal; beer styles often have a chaotic past and keep evolving, although it can be admitted that some styles have a more complicated and confusing past than others. The best brewery in the world, Cantillon, is an interesting example of the interplay of tradition and innovation. Cantillon is extremely traditionalist (non-interventionist) in its approach to brewing but also has an interesting record in experimentation with (or beyond) the lambic style, from the use of 100% malted barley and dry hopping (Cantillon Iris) to blending lambic and natural wine (Cantillon Pinot D’Aunis).

In closing, it is interesting to draw some attention to one of the unorthodox aspects of Berliner Weisse brewing; the no-boil (or short boil) method. Not boiling the wort can confer (or enhance) a number of characteristics of the beer; a lighter color, a “raw” dough character, cloudiness, reduced hop bitterness, participation of wild yeast and bacteria, and more sourness.  The no-boil method is now almost exclusively associated with the Berliner style but has a more varied history (it used to be a popular method in Norwegian brewing, too), a topic that will be treated in more detail in the future.


Upright Fatali Four


Posted by Aschwin de Wolf

In my opinion, Upright Brewing from Portland, Oregon, is one of the best and most innovative breweries in the Pacific Northwest. I do not particularly care for their year-round brews but I have been quite impressed with many of their seasonals, sours, and barrel-aged beers (see this post on gin barrel aging). Not unimportant either, sampling their new brews in their brewery / tasting room on a weekend evening is always a good night out.  In addition to their excellent gin barrel-aged sours, one of my favorite Upright beers is their seasonal, Fatali Four. Fatali Four is a barrel-aged sour beer blend to which homegrown fatali chiles have been added over a period of months to give it a distinct hot, spicy, flavor. Sour and hot is an excellent combination and this is the sort of thing that I could see a brewery like Cantillon do for their experimental Zwanze lambics.

Fatali Four is a low alcohol (4.5%) wheat beer with a “light use of brettanomyces yeast” and, of course, the  addition of chiles. A vigorous pour produces a little head, which dissipates rapidly. This opaque deep golden yellow beer has an attractive earthy lambic-like aroma with notes of lemon, orange, and hot pepper. The taste is quite tart and the chile expresses itself progressively, most notably in the finish. The horsey nature of this light beer goes quite well with the chile and I am almost tempted to announce a new beer style (‘chile wild ale’). Despite this being a low alcohol, dry beer, the heat decreases drinkability a bit, but I doubt this beer was envisioned as a session beer. What will happen to the hot pepper notes upon aging remains to be seen, as I was not able to detect a lot of the gin barrel aging character that should have been present for this blend. An excellent and style-setting brew.


Stillwater Artisanal Premium


Posted by Aschwin de Wolf

One of the developments that is associated with the increasing popularity of using wild yeast in craft brewing is that almost any kind of beer style has been combined with “brett.” There are now even new breweries whose sole aim is to brew traditional beer styles augmented by wild yeast. Many craft brewing experiments with brettanomyces involve generous malt bills and relatively high alcohol content. Stillwater Artisanal’s Premium, a “post-prohibition style ale,” departs from this trend. If you like a beer such as Fort George’s 1811 lager but are also interested in wild ales or beers like Orval, Premium should be an interesting brew.

Premium was brewed with Pilsner malt, corn, rice, spicy hops like Cluster, Northern Brewer, and Saaz, and fermented with a farmhouse ale yeast and 2 strains of brettanomyces. Such a recipe should produce a light and dry beer and it did. Premium pours an opaque dark yellow color with a big fluffy, white, head. The aroma is light, malty, and crisp with notes of lemon and brettanomyces. The taste is bone dry with bitter, herbal hops. The fermentation products of the brettanomyces yeast are well integrated and this light-bodied beer ends on a long, bitter, finish. Quite remarkably, this brew is still quite tasty when it warms up, too.

I was very pleased with this strange, “modern archaic” beer. It was light, low in alcohol (4.5%), and devoid of the obligatory citrus bomb hops. It is not tremendously complex but in this case that is a feature not a bug.

There are now a number of craft breweries aiming to create a year-round brett beer, and if the brewer proceeds with his plan to release this in cans, this is a strong addition.


Gin barrel aging of beer


Posted by Aschwin de Wolf

One of the most interesting developments in the Pacific Northwest has been the increasing popularity of gin barrel aging of beer. In particular, gin barrel aging of sour beers produces an interesting combination. This should not be surprising. Whereas whiskey, bourbon, and rum barrels can confer an overwhelming, “oppressive” note to beer (which is not always unwelcome, as in the case of imperial stouts), the pale ales and sour beers usually require a lighter approach, and the herbal and dry character of gin is an obvious choice in theory. In practice, the choice to age a beer in gin barrels is not so obvious because gin usually is not produced or aged in barrels.

The origins of gin go back to Dutch jenever (genever), a juniper-based spirit from which gin originated. Supposedly the tradition of adding juniper berries to distilled malt wine was to mask the poor flavor. When distillation methods improved, the use of juniper berries and other herbs was retained and jenever has been a popular drink in the Netherlands and Belgium since. Contemporary jenever can range from industrial neutral “jonge jenever” made with whopping amounts of sugar and juniper extract to authentic “oude jenever” made from 100% grain and fermented juniper berries, aged in barrels (unfortunately, modern oude jenever is often colored and sweetened with caramel). Naturally, only the rarer practice of using wood aging in jenever and gin produce barrels suitable for barrel aging of beer.

There are at least three approaches in which gin (or jenever) and beer can meet. Gin can be blended with beer, such as in the making of beer cocktails. Beer can be brewed with juniper berries and herbs that are typically used for gin to give a gin-like property to beer. Finally, beer can be aged in used gin barrels to impart the flavor of gin during barrel aging of beer. I will leave a treatment of beer cocktails to the side except to note that I once got reasonably interesting results from mixing gin and a pale ale (one needs to experiment a little for arriving at the right proportion). Distillerie Claeyssens de Wambrechies in France actually makes a top fermented beer blended with gin during the brewing process called La Wambrechies.

In Oregon, Rogue Ales makes a Juniper Pale Ale that has some subtle gin connotations. Of much greater interest is Rogue’s limited John John Juniper, which is aged in spruce gin barrels. Unlike Rogue’s regular Juniper Pale Ale, this beer had an unmistakable dry and spicy gin character. Another beer that was inspired by gin is Midnight Sun’s Bathtub Gin Gruit Ale.

But the most interesting application of gin barrel aging, in my opinion, is for wild and sour ales. Gin barrel aging can greatly enhance the aroma and taste of sour beer. Lambic is traditionally associated with the use of fruit but brews such as Cantillon’s Mamouche show impressive results for blending herbs into sour beers.

One of the pioneers in gin barrel aging of beers, and sour beers in particular, is Portland’s Upright Brewing. Aside from being the most innovative sour beer brewery in Portland to date, Upright has done gin barrel aging for a number of its beers using Ransom Old Tom Gin barrels. In fact, Upright seems to like the idea of a meeting between beer and gin so much that they brewed a special beer to be matched with Dutch jenever called Kopstootje Biere. Kopstootje is a Bière de Garde made with the same botanicals as Bols Genever. This beer was launched to great enthusiasm at special pub events where it was consumed in a challenging one-two punch with jenever, according to Dutch ritual.

Other recent and upcoming gin-inspired and gin barrel aged releases include Breakside’s Gin-Barrel Double Wit, Soursop Wheat, Citra Gin IPA, and Simcoe Gin IPA; Ninkasi’s Ransom Old Tom Gin Wood Barrel Aged Maiden the Shade; Oakshire’s Gin Barrel Saison and Gin Barrel Aged Imperial Overcast Stout; some beers in B’ United’s Zymatore series; and Stillwater’s Artisanal Kopstootje.

One of the common observations about beers that have been aged in gin barrels is that the aromatic properties this procedure confers tend to produce some variability in detection. There is little information to date how the “gin” character of gin barrel aged beer evolves over time. For example, I recently sampled a bottle of Belmont Station’s 14th Anniversary Commemorative Ale and Upright’s Special Herbs (a gruit aged in Old Tom Gin barrels) and I could not detect much gin character — in the case of Upright’s beer less than I recall originally tasting on tap. In the case of Rogue’s John John Juniper I was struck by the difference in gin character between the bottled and draft version. Such observations about gin barrel aged beers are not confined to my own, and I have read similar statements from other people. These complexities notwithstanding, gin barrel aging and brewing with traditional jenever herbs offer great potential for producing exceptional sour beers and lambics.


Jolly Pumpkin Baudelaire Beer IO Saison


Posted by Aschwin de Wolf

It may strike the reader as strange that I have never reviewed a Jolly Pumpkin beer. After all, Jolly Pumpkin is one of the major brewers of wild and sour ales in the United States. As a matter of fact, I like many of their beers. Their Bam Bière is one of my favorite year-round Saisons and makes a great session beer (if you are in Ann Arbor, MI, you can have it on tap in their pub). Their Calabaza Blanca is an excellent tart wit bier. And they also do spontaneous fermentation. So I was quite interested in tasting one of their limited releases, Baudelaire Beer IO Saison.

Another reason why I was interested in this beer is that it was brewed with rose hips, rose petals and hibiscus. Home brewers often have a hard time producing a beer that is sufficiently sour and one natural way to move things along is to add herbs with tart characteristics. The most accomplished sour beer I have brewed to date involved the addition of a whopping amount of hibiscus and brett to an ale after primary fermentation. Generous amounts of hibiscus also add a nice reddish hue to a brew.

My bottle of Baudelaire Beer IO Saison is blend 7/8 and was bottled on 2-4-2011. The beer pours an opaque reddish amber. The aroma evokes well-balanced and restrainted brettanomyces notes, strawberry, hibiscus, and rose petal. The taste is equally restrained; moderately tart, citrus, floral, slightly sweet (like dry caramel), earthy, and there is a little astringency, too. The beer is smooth and finishes on a slightly sweet note.  This spritzy beer is a pleasure to drink and would constitute an excellent introduction to sour styles. Quite an elegant brew with a pretty label.