Four Brewers | Why So Sour?
Season 2, Episode 13 – This week, we’re drinking some pretty rad sours while John gets serious about bottle dates.
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Welcome to the fourth show, that is, the fourth show of session 14 of Four Brewers. In case you’re unfamiliar with how we record shows, we get together every three weeks and record three shows in a four hour session, which we broadcast live on Google Hangouts and our YouTube channel. The shows are then edited in post-production and released weekly.
Due to scheduling conflicts, we had to record four episodes during our last session (that’s a lot of beer…). This leads us to this week’s episode. The discussions get a little heated and a bit off the rails, and our deepest inner beer geeks come out to play. Now that you know what you’re in for, let’s dive in!
We start off with a beer thats new to all of us that was provided by Temecula’s [self-proclaimed] Beer Ambassador, Mr. John Ryti, Destihl Brewery’s Here Gose Nothin’. The best way to describe this beer is clean, refreshing, and cleansing. It has notes of tangerine and clementines, and packs a big and salty sour punch. We all enjoy the beer, but all agree that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the awesome sours that Destihl became known for a few years ago and is still currently making.
Cascade Brewing is up next with Figaro, a “northwest-style” ale made with white figs and lemon peel and aged in Chardonnay barrels. It has a rough, but balanced sourness, and is quite savory, to say the least. This is the first time we’ve all heard of white figs, and we find out that there are actually many different varieties of figs out there. TIL.
Next up is a tasting of three different vintages of The Dissident from Deschutes Brewery; 2008, 2012, and 2014. This beer is a sour brown ale that is made with cherries, and is meant to age in the bottle…by design. What this means is that Deschutes specifically designed this beer to age and sour in the bottle, much like beers that are bottle conditioned with brettanomyces. In fact, it even has an “enjoy after” date printed in the back of the bottle. It’s this “enjoy after” concept that sparks a debate on the show. Should a brewery release a beer that isn’t ready for consumption when it’s fresh? Is the brewery catering specifically to beer geeks who plan to cellar this beer? Is the brewery right to put the burden of aging a beer to its prime on the consumer? These are all brought up during the debate, and makes for an interesting and lively discussion. As far as The Dissident goes, it’s a great beer that changes a lot, mostly for the good, over a few years of cellaring. Deschutes knows sours, and it shows with this beer.
BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT.
Links to things from this week’s episode:
S2/E13 Show Outline
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