Lambic and Wild Ale

I have been reluctant to write about Belmont Station’s 2010 Puckerfest because there were few local sour beers on tap that I find appealing, and this opinion is not due to a lack of trying! I still am not aware of any Pacific Northwest brewer who can consistently produce a good consistent sour ale. I am inclined to think that this is the result of the tendency to engage in excessive experimentation in the world of microbrewing. Experimentation is great for innovation but the usual order of things is to master the basic style first. One of the sour ales on tap tasted like the soft drink Fanta, another one displayed a rather unsuccessful combination of brett and oak, and one brew could only be classified as “theoretical” because it probably sounded good on paper, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Like last year, I liked the Russian River and New Belgium brews the best. New Belgium has the annoying, but understandable, habit of producing its best beers in tap-only limited quantities, although their more available La Folie is a serious contender for the best sour ale in the United States.

One real problem for the American sour beer consumer is that even the better producers like Russian River have to release their beers with a price tag that is usually higher than, let’s say, a great traditional Gueuze blender like Hanssens – and that is after import from Belgium to the United States! It is interesting to note that the Pacific Northwest is plagued by a similar curse in the case of wine. Pinot Noir is a notoriously challenging grape to grow and the price reflects this. For a fraction of the price of a decent Oregon Pinot Noir, good organic reds from France are available at local wine retailers like Liner & Elsen. This should not be read as a United States vs. Europe issue. The United States can claim some world class beers (Deschutes’ Green Lakes, Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, Great Divide’s Yeti Imperial Stout) but I am not holding my breath for an affordable year-round top-notch sour ale anytime soon.

At this point in time, Portland’s best local sour drink on tap (!) remains Kombucha.

This review of Supplication marks the fourth Russian River entry on this blog. Our positive experiences with Consecration, Beatification and Temptation created high expectations for this barrel aged Russian River beer as well.

This review is for Supplication 350 ml bottle (Batch 4×2).

Sour cherries were added to this “brown ale” during barrel aging and I expected a bright red color reminiscent of the Kriek lambics of Cantillon and Hanssens. The beer poured a clear amber and left a small creamy, but persistent, head. The smell was equally surprising and not as sharp (acetic acid) as I expected. This batch smelled rather musty with a dominant oaky brettanomyces aroma. Mild notes of banana, cherry and tropical fruit were detected as well. Upon tasting the sourness of this beer was rather moderate. The funk clearly dominated the fruit. Medium bodied with medium carbonation. Slight astringency. The most remarkable aspect of this beer is that the agreeable initial taste gave away to a rather yeasty bitter finish. This rather unpleasant aftertaste substantially decreased my appreciation for this beer.

I am not sure whether Supplication is “supposed” to be this way or that this batch is different from the previous batches. We opened two 350 ml bottles to compare but the experience was the same for both bottles. Since the  yeast sediment was left at the bottom of the bottle I am inclined to rule out that the yeast sediment was poured with the beer (an unfortunate event that can ruin a great lambic). I did not get much of the dry and lingering tartness that many other reviewers have tasted.

This was a rather disappointing beer from Russian River. The “nice cherry flavor and sourness” that the label offers was hardly found in these bottles. I am open to the suggestion that this batch was not representative. To be revisited in the future!

Reviews of the other three Russian River wild ales:

Russian River Temptation

Russian River Beatification

Russian River Consecration

Unless yet another wild ale from Russian River comes my way soon, this will be the last Russian River review for awhile.  Temptation is a blond ale aged in used French Oak chardonnay barrels and is the brewery’s most recent 750 ml bottle release. Prior to tasting this beer I expected that I would enjoy it but that it would not compare to Beatification, the best Russian River beer I have tasted so far, and this turned out to be correct.

I was most concerned about the use of chardonnay barrels. In principle, there is nothing wrong with this grape but, as we all know after watching the comedy-drama Sideways, chardonnay is one of the most  abused grapes in the United States; dulled by secondary malolactic fermentation and the vanilla taste of  oak.  Of course, the use of old oak is one of the essential elements in traditional lambic brewing and contributes to the fermentation of the beer and its complexity. The danger with the use of new oak, however, is that such advantages risk being offset by the oak dominating at the expense of other flavors. In this sense, oak has similar effects  such as leaving too much residual sugar in a beer (or wine). Fortunately, Temptation is barrel aged in old French chardonnay barrels for 9 to 15 months but the oak is certainly present. As in the other Russian River wild ales, souring bacteria and Brettanomyces are used and the resulting brew is refermented in the bottle.

The following notes were taken on Friday, September 11, 2009:

Batch 004X1. Poured into a Cantillon Geuze glass.

Appearance: Pours a very fizzy head (2-3 fingers) with lots of carbonation. Blond. More head retention than expected.

Smell: Soft barnyard smell. Brettanomyces. Some citrus and a little sweet and spicy.

Taste:  Brettanomyces. Slightly sour. Round “numbing” taste, ending on a neutral note. Yeasty. Light in flavor. Grapefruit. Soft tannins.

Mouthfeel: Medium. Fizzy. Light on the tongue and buttery.

Drinkability: Less drinkable than some of their other wild ales. Perhaps the fuller and fizzy mouthfeel contributes to this.

“Is it beer, or is it wine?” asks the label on the bottle. After drinking Temptation I am inclined to answer that the similarities with wine are more than countered by the surprisingly dominant note of the brettanomyces yeast. I do not recall having tasted a beer from Russian River where the brett contributed so much to the smell and flavor. This combination of brett and chardonnay  is certainly unique, if not provocative.

It is not hard to “reverse-engineer” why I enjoyed this beer less than Consecration and Beatification. There is the royal presence of brettanomyces without enough sourness or hops to balance it.  And as far as the wine barrel of choice is concerned, chardonnay does not rank among my favorite wines (perhaps next time, Russian River can pick a Savennières barrel from the Loire Valley in France). I found this beer just a little too soft and buttery for a wild ale and the finish was remarkably short and neutral. I would not hesitate to drink Temptation over most American ales but I do not care as much about this beer as  I do about the other Russian River sour ales.

Is this possible to make a lambic in the United States? This depends on the definition of what constitutes a lambic (brewing process or location) but the ongoing attempt by Allagash to use the usual ingredients, a cool ship, and  real spontaneous fermentation could do it. In the meantime,  some of the beers made by Russian River are coming closer in terms of brewing process and taste.  Few, if any, American wild ales have come as close to the smell and taste of an actual Belgian Geuze as Russian River’s Beatification.

Beatification is a blend of two vintages of a base beer called “Sonambic,” which are further blended with “a couple of other orphan beers” to change the mouthfeel of barrel aged beers or enhance its acidity. Beatification was aged for 8 to 15 months in old Oak Barrels (at least 5 years according to Russian River’s website) which impart little wine or oak notes to the beer. Its “spontaneous” character lies in the wild yeasts and bacteria which inhabit the barrels.  This method comes a lot closer to traditional lambic brewing than just adding a lambic or Flanders Red culture to the beer. Like traditional Geuze, Beatification undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle, which, as all the Russian River wild ale bottles, feature restrained and beautiful labels.

Because we did not have an opportunity to try this until a family member from California visited us, the beer that we tasted may have benefited from further aging after it was purchased in 2008.

The following notes were taken on Thursday, August 27, 2009:

Batch 003. 750 ml. Poured into a Cantillon Geuze glass.

Upon uncorking — lots of carbonation, foam came over the lip of the bottle.

Appearance: When pouring, half a finger of head which dissipated quickly. Blond / yellow beer, opaque.

Smell: Smells like a traditional Geuze. Cannot recall any American beer that smells so much like a lambic/Geuze. Brett, citrus (lemon), wheat.

Taste: Very tart, with a smooth finish. One of the strongest lemon notes I have ever tasted in a beer. Wheat. Alcohol is not very noticeable. A slight grapefruit note develops as it gets warmer.

Mouthfeel: Light. Moderate carbonation (just the right amount). Some astringency.

Drinkability: Extremely drinkable. Perhaps it is a good thing that the price prevents excessive consumption! A perfect beer to drink outside in warm weather.

One difference between Beatification and Geuze lambic that I detected is the reduced complexity in taste. In this case I am wondering whether this should be considered a defect because the bone dry and lemon-like taste is exceptional.   There are more complex Russian River wild ales but Beatification simply blows them away.  There is something to be said for alcoholic beverages that simply feature flawless execution of a specific flavor. More than one reviewer has compared Beatification to a very dry, tart white wine. In light of my preference for the dry and concentrated white wines from the Alsace region in France, this characterization does not surprise me.

Since this beer was so close in taste to a traditional Geuze it would be interesting to  use an analytical chemistry technique like chromatography on this beer to determine its chemical profile and compare it to traditional lambics and other wild ales.

After tasting Beatification there is no doubt in my mind that Americans can compete with the best traditional Lambic brewers if  instant gratification is suppressed and the temptation to sweeten the beer, the use of new oak , and excessive carbonation is discouraged. All these pitfalls have been avoided in Beatification.

Of all the wild ales that are currently available in the United States, Beatification ranks among the best.

Russian River Brewing Company is one of the most prominent American craft breweries with a strong focus on wild ales. Unlike their year-round beers Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig, and Damnation, their wild ales are released as bottled limited editions or are only available for a limited period at their brewpub. Since their flagship beers have become available in states such as Oregon and Washington, their limited edition wild ales have found their way to the consumer as well. Consecration is a wild ale made with zante currants aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels and refermented in the bottle with a rather high alcohol percentage for the style (10%).

The following notes were taken on Friday, July 24, 2009:

Batch 002X3. Poured into a snifter.

Consecration is fizzy upon pouring but leaves little to no head or lacing. The color of the beer resembles a soft drink  (!) like cola, an impression that is further reinforced by its fizzy nature.

The beer is medium bodied and quite carbonated. When the prickly feeling on the tongue disappears it is quite smooth.

The smell of this beer is quite exceptional. Fruits. Alcohol. Vinegar. I also detected a slightly oxidized smell, reminiscent of  sherry and the oxidized wines from the Jura region in France. Since this beer innovates at so many fronts at once (choice of fruit, alcohol content, Cabernet Sauvignon barrels) there is no real baseline for comparison. Consecration has a smell that is distinctly unique.

Like the smell, the taste is quite original. Tart and fruity but heavy and astringent too. Unlike most traditional lambics, aftertaste is quite short and ends on a slightly bitter note. As the beers warms up, a slightly sweet, but pleasant, note is detected.

The alcohol content alone make this beer a sipper. This is further reinforced by its fairly high carbonation.

I approached this beer with two conflicting feelings. So far I have not been that impressed by any attempts to create high alcohol wild ales or Flemish reds. For example, many recent Northwestern attempts to create sour beers have struggled to reconcile the classic characteristics of the style and high alcohol content, with, in my opinion, mixed success. On the other hand, so far I have not tasted any Russian River beers that I did not like. I found this beer quite persuasive as well but my reservations about high alcohol sour ales remain.

Consecration is certainly a very vinous beer. But with such a high alcohol content, it almost inevitable to compare this beer with a rustic red wine (like Olga Raffault Chinon “Les Picasses”). I do not know if the use of grains, souring bacteria, and brettanomyces are at odds with higher alcohol beers or whether the attempts so far leave something to be desired.

Ironically, the most impressive attempt at a high alcohol (8%) lambic is Frank Boon’s  “Geuze Marriage Parfait,” a brewer that I am normally not so thrilled about. Marriage Parfait does not contain any fruit. It might be interesting to take this approach a step further and create an older, “flatter” version of such a beer and age it in sherry or cognac barrels.

Despite these critical reflections, Russian River has set another great example in the world of wild ales. Hopefully, the brewery decides to produce a year-round wild ale in the future.