Embrace The Funk

Sour, Funky and Wild Beer

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  • Breaking Bad with Beer

    Breaking Bad is my favorite TV show on air right now. After a little over a year after Season 3 ended Season 4 is back on! It’s A+ quality television, catch it if you can. So…why am I referencing a TV show on a sour beer blog and what the hell does this term “Breaking Bad” even mean? For the most part it means “To go wild, challenge convention, to defy authority.” I thought that’s a good way to sum up sour beers! Beer styles that have “Broke Bad” Beers that say “Awww your 300 bittering ibus are cute, now deal with some acidity and dont cry about it Mr. Hophead.”

    Tonight I sampled a 2009 La Folie sour brown ale from New Belgium and my latest bottled homebrew sour ….a Flanders Brown/Oud Bruin. 

    Anyone who knows me personally knows how much love I have for sour browns. Liefman’s Goudenband was the first sour beer I ever tried and I was hooked. Hard to believe I discovered this style in the 2000’s at a small bottle shop in Johnson City, TN!

    The La Folie is a capped 22oz and not a corked bottle, I can tell you it seems to have has changed in the 2 years it was stored at 58 degrees. Even though New Belgium has said they flash pasteurize the beer after it leaves the oak. It seems to have a drier finish now. The dark cherry flavors seem to be more pronounced now, but still back up nicely to the oak. It was starting to pick up a sherry flavor, which I enjoy in older browns. I have a few bottles of 2010  in the cellar I might should have done a side by with this one on, but it’s a moot point now.

    Next up was the Flanders Brown I brewed in February 2010. Originally I had 10 gallons of this recipe. Due to the great flood of May 2010 I lost half the batch when one of the fermentors fell over. The carboy that had this batch happen to be sitting about 3 feet higher and was never touched by the water. I finally bottled the batch about 3 weeks ago. Pretty basic original recipe:

    1.058 OG, 22 ibus with Hallertauer

    • 65% Pilsner
    • 15% Cara Munich 80
    • 10% Caravienna
    • 5% Maize
    • 5% Special B

    Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Blend

    Mashed at 155, 90 minute boil, Fermented 3 weeks primary then secondary glass carboy for 17 months.

    I’m loving how this one turned out. Next time I will probably mash at 156 or even 157 to keep a little bit more malt character in it. I dunno, I am kinda torn on that one. We will see this winter. But the aroma is a definite raisin, black cherry, some slight toffee. As far as funk in the aroma, I get some of the typical brett traits but mostly leather and earthy.

    The flavor is what I am loving albeit on the sour dry side of a sweet malt vs sour mix. Black cherries, plum, and fig. Acidic lacic on the back end.

    A great night…awesome intense episode of Breaking Bad with some beers that have Broke Bad.

  • NHC Final Round Score and a Bonus Beer

    Yesterday I blogged about the Berliner Weisse style and the version I brewed that took second in Sours for the NHC regionals. I had to send 3 bottles for judging to final round of the National Homebrewers Conference in San Diego last month. I got the score sheets back today. The final score was 39 out of 50 and the beer did advance within the finals to the mini best of show round. While I didn’t win anything in the finals I’m happy with the scores/feedback I got. Considering this is the largest beer competition in the world (bigger than GABF, World Beer Cup etc…) with 6,996 entries, 750 advanced to the finals, 30 of those being in the sour category.

    I don’t have any of that batch chilled for a pic but (and I promise the pics will get better when I finish my light box) so I am celebrating with another Berliner type beer. This one was an experiment for sure that I think was a success. My last brew was a used up some grain type Saison. Other than the base malts of Pilsner, Wheat, Munich I had some grain I wanted to use up. I dont have the exacts in front of me ( if anyone wants me to get them I’ll gladly post) but in the 20 gallon batch it also had about a pound each Rye, Golden Naked Oats, and Special B.

    Well right before I was going to start removing the spent grain from the mash I thought hmmmm I could get a bonus 5 gallons of something sour. So I ran some more hot water into the mash stirred it up let it sit another 20 minutes. After that I  started draining the 3rd runnings from the mash into a 6 gallon Better Bottle. Mixing in a few cups of light dried malt extract I had a 1.028 gravity wort with lots of good live lactobacillus in it. When the temp of the wort got down to 80 degrees (not a good pitching temp for normal beer but about 4 hours later) I pitched a pack each of Lacto, Brett Lambicus, and Wyeast 1338 Euro Ale yeast. A few weeks later it had fermented down to 1.001.

    Its a very refreshing light beer, mildly tart, touch of brett, and very effervescent. Clarity is pretty bad on it, but I think on this beer the fines still in suspension are what adds to this beer. Very much a rustic type of beer I picture some farm hands probably enjoyed. Even at a few weeks old and on tap already its got alot of flavor mostly due to the no boil and higher than normal temps.

  • Cascade Kriek Ale


    This is an example of a Kriek done right and not the back sweetened garbage that Lindeman’s puts out there (which is untraditional practice).

    Cascade’s Kriek is aged with 4 types of cherries and in oak for around 6 months. The tart cherry plus the oaky sour acidity were spot on and the most upfront flavors. This beer is very complex even at it’s young age. I also got some almond and vanilla flavors when I look past the blast of cherry. Aroma was well you guessed it cherry first, then vinegar, and snuggled in there some oak. The Lacto and cherries are a match made in beer heaven.

    For a sour fan like me, its good and sour. The mouth puckering of the tart cherries and lactic keep you coming back for a sip.

  • Boon Geuze Mariage Parfait

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    It warms my heart to see some of the great Lambic breweries available in Nashville now. More people are Embracing the Funk and the stores are taking notice!

    I really liked this beer as an approachable Geuze. Very balanced in the lactic sourness versus the citrus and lemon flavors. It’s got the right amount of “mustiness” for my liking. Carbonation…wow as soon as the cage came off the cork blew out and hit the ceiling! This seems like one of the darker colored Geuzes I have tried. My guess would be the Maillard reaction during a long boil time and not the use of any caramel malts.

    While it’s not tame by any means, it’s a good one to introduce someone to as a world class example of the style. This one moved up to my second favorite Geuze right behind Cantillon. Sorry 3 Fonteinen.

  • Bubbly Lactic Goodness

    Being the sour beer fan I am I think this is the perfect summer beer. Berliner Weisse beers are a refreshing low alcohol (around 3%) sour wheat beer. They are very high in carbonation and the finishing taste is very dry. Traditionally this style is not boiled before fermentation as to keep the already present natural souring bacteria Lactobacillus alive.

    This is a bottle of the Berliner Weisse I brewed in July 2010 that aged in the primary carboy until January 2011. In April of 2011 this beer took second place in the sour category at the National Homebrewing Conference 1st round. It was a basic Pilsner/Wheat malt base with Saaz hops in the mash and Wyeast 3191PC yeast blend then turned out very nice.