Colour Five by Jester King

February 8, 2015 by cloudx30 tagged Blueberries, blueberry cheese cake, Colour Five, Gu Jian Qi Tan, hiliuyun, jester king, Oak aged, oak barrels, Texas, World Class American Wild Ale | Leave a comment

Rating: 5.25/5

Colour Five by Jester King is a 7.1% ABV World Class American Wild Ale aged in oak barrels and refermented with blueberries.

Label:
Texas blueberries were added to mature, barrel-aged sour beer and refermented to dryness. Unfiltered, unpasteurized, and 100% bottle-conditioned.

==Introduction==

Jester King in Texas is like the Bruery of Texas when it comes to pushing the limitations of experimentation in making some of the best beers in the country. While it is difficult to get beers like this one here in California, especially the more rare and exclusive hard to get ones, I am glad I have great friend like Aaron Mendiola at www.beermetaldude.com who has been hooking me up with some great brews for the last year and a half or so. The story about this one has to do with Jester King’s attempt at making a blueberry beer in 2013 but had difficulty as the batches had failed their quality control. It wasn’t until 2014 when they were finally able to able to make the blend they wanted and perfect it so that it wasn’t so sour but mainly fruity and tart. With that said, Let’s check this one out and see how it goes. Cheers!

Aromas:
Rich Blueberries, tart raspberries, wine grapes, dark fruit raisins, currants, plums, strawberries, lemon peel, biscuit bread, brown sugar, rye, rose petals, blueberry yogurt, rose petals, hibiscus flowers, farmhouse hay, banana hints, musty funk and peppercorn.

Flavors:
Rich Blueberries, Raspberries, tart cherry skins, wine grapes, strawberries, dark fruit currants, raisin, plum skins, oak, vanilla, lemon peel, biscuit bread, rye, graham cracker hints, sweetened condensed milk hints, flowers, peppercorn, hibiscus, rose petals, blueberry yogurt, cheesecake hints, farmhouse hay, banana notes, musty funk, mushroom hints, sea salt and brown sugar.

Aftertaste:
Finishes mildly dry with some nice tart dark fruits, oak, sweet vanilla, flowers and mild funky notes
No alcohol in the taste, magenta light to medium body, creamy and crisp mouthfeel and moderate drinkability.

Overall:
A very awesome beer they got here. This one was more tart than sour. There was a lot of elements of funkiness along with some rich fruity flavors to balance out the tartness. While I love sweeter beers, this one had a balanced that worked really well. Unless you don’t like sours or even tart beers, this may not be for you but I can definitely say I enjoyed this one a lot and recommend it!

Anime Corner:
Gu Jian Qi Tan by hiliuyun was used in this pairing since I wanted something that resembled the geometric shape that almost looks like a pentagram in the label. Since the beer took specific calculations and a lot of trial and error to get it just the way they wanted, it was fitting that the art pairing fit. The character here on top of the pentagram represents the aging process as the blue berry beer lays waiting to become perfect.

Sources:
http://www.deviantart.com/art/gu-jian-qi-tan-2-196966428

No. 19 Barrel Aged Series Rufus Corvus by Avery brewing

October 27, 2014 by cloudx30 tagged American Wild Ale, Avery, Battleship-Symbiotic Hime, Brettanomyces, cabernet savignon barrels, Chardonnay Barrels, Kancolle/Kantai Collection, Lactobasillicus, No. 19 Barrel Aged Series, oak barrels, Pediococcus, Rufus Corvus, Senkanseiki, Wo-Class, World Class American Wild Ale, world class beers, Zinfandel Barrels | Leave a comment

Rating: 5.45/5

No. 19 Barrel Aged Series Rufus Corvus by Avery brewing is a 6.83% ABV World Class American Wild Ale with 65% aged in Cabernet Savignon barrels, 9% Ale aged in chardonnay barrels and 6% Zinfandel barrels.

Label:
The Sour Trinity
Pediococcus
Brettanomyces
Lactobasillicus

No. 19 An artful and massively acidic blend of two major projects and further enhanced with several orphan barrels from the corners of our barrel aging cellar. All Ale involved was barrel aged for a minimum of 8 months and a maximum of 24 months.

Pucker up, buttercup!

Bottled: April 7 2014
Production: 858 Cases
___

Avery Barrel Aged series definitely sells out quick here in California to the point that sometimes I miss out on such great beers. Aaron from www.beermetaldude.com introduced me to this beer. A sour using the vast variety of souring bacteria used in sour beers but then taken to another level using a variety of oak wine barrels. This was truly an honor just like that of the 5 monks. I cannot wait to try this monster and see how it goes…. wish me luck!

Aromas:
Wine grapes, port wine, funky oak, earthy notes, vinegar notes, wine and cheese party, dark fruits like plum, raisins, currants, berry skins, caramel, vanilla, lemon peel, lime, salt, dark cherry, plum sauce, port wine, chardonay, raspberries, rye bread, brown sugar hints, pecan hints and hazelnut.

Flavors:
Dark fruit raisins, plum, wine grapes, salt, lemon, lime peel, dark cherries, plum sauce, Concorde grapes, vanilla, port wine, chardonay, wine grapes, caramel, rye bread, stone fruit peach, pear, apples, funky, earthy notes, good cheese and wine, raspberry vinaigrette, hazelnut, smoked wood, leather, tobacco, berry yogurt, raw berry seeds, mild cheesecake notes in the back, brown sugar, pecan pie dryness, and very mild flan.

Aftertaste:
Ridiculously dry leaving only some sour notes, caramel, dark fruit skins and earthy funk. No alcohol in the taste, a puckeringly mouth feel, sipping beer, pitch brown bordering the black and purple abyss of a body.

Overall:
Very Rich and complex sour. Possibly the ultimate complex and balanced sour. Only the truest sours can be appreciated by palates with an achieved open level of taste. This is sour but it is rich beyond comprehension. Sours are only a handful of my favorites but this takes it a certain level I have not experienced before. It is like the Cardinal Poles of tasting. You have your extreme Smokey, Extreme Sweet, Extreme Bitter and Extreme sour but at the same times, the poles blend and while one pole is the most dominant, in this case the Sour pole, the other sides are so balanced that that they make the sourness be very complex. I would highly recommend this one if you love sours, especially puckering and sweet complex ones.

Anime Corner:
Battleship-Symbiotic Hime and Wo-class from Kantai Collection were used in this pairing to represent the dark void of the sours and the creatures you typically don’t see. The 2 characters and the monster in the background represent the 3 bacteria: Lactobasiliccus,Pediococcus and Brettanomyces. The colors also represent some aspects of the dark fruit and complex flavors as well. While Doing this review, I could only think of Caius Ballad’s theme (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8vXYBEvSow) from Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns. As the characters stumble deeper and deeper into the chaos and mainly this character being the embodiment of Chaos, it is synonymous with exploring deeper and deeper into the sour world of super complex sour beers like this one presents.

Sources:
http://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2013/12/02/182227/d837c3da88727616dae561894aed45ee.jpg

Duck-Duck-Gooze edition 2013 by The Lost Abbey

October 23, 2013 by cloudx30 tagged American Wild Ale, best beers in the world, Disgaea, Duck Duck Gooze, Duck Tales, ducklings, earthy aroma, Etna, grapes, Magica De Spell, Mother Gooze School, Nia, Nia Teppelin, Oak aged, sour ale, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, The Lost Abbey, World Class American Wild Ale, world class beers, Yoko, Yoko Littner, Yoko Ritona | Leave a comment

Rating: 5/5

Duck-Duck-Gooze by The Lost Abbey is a 7% ABV World Class American Wild Ale

Label:
There’s an art to corralling a bunch of ducklings A nip to turn Suzy this way or a nudge to launch little Johnny towards the water and suddenly they are all lined up ready to follow along. Or are they? This isn’t something they teach you at Mother Gooze School. You see, there always seems to be that one duckling (or two) who has an agenda all their own. At that point, all bets are of. Then mama goose loses control and her inner Devil comes out.

Blending Oak Barrels can be a lot like corralling little ducklings. Each barrel has its own personality. Some, like good little ducklings, get in line from the very beginning. Others are quite more problematic and need more nurturing. Duck Duck Gooze is made from all sorts of barrels. Some were great from the beginning while others needed more attention. Duck Duck Gooze was three years in the making. We hope you find it worth the wait
___

Only released exclusively at the Lost Abbey every 3 years since 2009, this beer ha made a return this year. Last year They could not do it as they had to make way for the Ultimate Box set which was released in 2012. This beer will be slated to release in 2016 again. The beer is made with 3 sets of barrels each aging 1, 2 and 3 years apart and then blended together. I was only lucky enough to get a single bottle eligible for review here at the site. Being probably the best sour ale ever released, I will do my best to review in as much detail as my ability will allow.

Aromas are very citrusy, lemon, lime, biscuit bread, funky bitter grapes, oak, peach, pears, hints of dragon fruit, earthy must, barnyard hay, floral notes, chamomile and roses

The flavors are musty, and citrusy but some very nice sweetness and oakiness lurks. Lemon, oranges, roses, hay, biscuit bread, chamomile, sour apple, apricot, sour lemon candy, teguacan (Mexican Lime and seltzer water with spices), pineapple, musty grapes and spices.

The aftertaste leaves like lemon on a sour fruit with oak. Basically, it leaves sour but then fades into like a fruity and hay finish. Clear body, but you definitely have to take your time with it

Overall this is puckeringly Awesome. It starts off sour but as you go on and it warms up, it gets good giving some really nice fruity, citrusy and oaky taste. You really have to enjoy sours to like this one, otherwise this beer may not be for you. I think this is one of the reasons it was made this way. Having an open taste to sour helps finding good flavors in them. Jolly Pumpkin helped out for many years to find it. The good thing is that this one is more tart than pure sour. Clearly some sours may be pure vinegar taste but some beers when done very well, are exceptionally awesome, like this one.