Tag Archives: lactobacillus

Strange Times for Modern Fellows – Strange Fellows Brewing (Modern Times Beer)

by Mike

For the Launch of Modern Times Beer into British Columbia Canada they came up to Vancouver for Farmhouse Fest.  While here they partnered up with Strange Fellows Brewing in East Vancouver for a collaboration called “Strange Times for Modern Fellows” a saison using a blend of yeasts including Blaugies Saison & multiculture including Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus.  The beer pours a straw yellow colour with a white head.  The aroma consists of mango, pineapple and citrus with grainy malts and grassy hops.  The flavour is of mango, pineapple, citrus, citrus rind, stone fruits, grain, mild sour notes, some hops and a brett finish.  The alcohol content comes in at 6.5% with an IBU of 25.  This is a wonderful beer made by two very good breweries!  I hope this beer pops up again in the future.

Commercial Description:  Brewed in June 2016 in collaboration with the folks from Modern Times Beer in San Diego, this is a complex, dry and refreshing beer. Fermented with a Iquique multiculture, flavours of pineapple, Lemon and Lychee dominate this bottle-conditioned beer.

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For the Launch of this beer Strange Fellows Brewing held a launch party in collaboration with Beerthirst the distributor for Modern Times Beer in Canada.   For the launch the brewery was serving glasses of the collaboration beer with a 4 oz pour of one of two Modern Times beers.  I was lucky enough to get a sample of the Looking Backwards from Modern Times usually a tasting room only beer in California.  It was a super tart beer and very tasty!  There was also a Modern Times Beer on tap also in their Fruitlands (Blood Orange & Hibiscus) a sour Gose.

 

Cool Hand Cuke (Cucumber Sour) – Hearthstone Brewery

by Mike

From Hearthstone Brewery in North Vancouver in collaboration with West Coast Canning comes their “Cool Hand Cuke” a cucumber sour ale made for the new CanCity canned beer festival in Vancouver.  The beer pours a golden colour with a small white head that dissipates quickly.  The aroma is comprised of cucumbers with a hint for tartness.  The flavour starts out with a definite lactobacillus tartness without a big acidic hit followed by cucumbers and a hint of malts.  The alcohol content comes in at 4% with an IBU of 00.  This is a seriously fantastic beer and I hope that they plan on making more of this in the near future!

If you want to try this beer check out the CanCity Beer Festival happening soon.  Purchase your tickets here.

Commercial Description:  Brewed in collaboration with the beauties over at West Coast Canning to celebrate the inaugural Cancity Beer Festival on July 30th, 2016.  This is a golden sour ale with a refreshing hint of cucumber.  Grab a pal, crack a can and get your cuke on!

 

Grätzer: Smoke & Sour – Steel & Oak Brewing and Four Winds Brewing

by Mike

Recently two very well respected breweries in Metro Vancouver partnered up to make a collaboration beer.  Steel & Oak Brewing in New Westminster and Four Winds Brewing in Delta brought their differing expertise to the table to make a beer that bends the styles that both breweries make.  Steel & Oak are well known for their Smoked Hefeweizen as well as other smoked beers and really don’t move outside of the German purity laws.  On the other hand Four Winds Brewing has enjoyed huge success with brewing beers infected with wild yeasts and bacteria to make sour beers.  Together they have created the “Grätzer: Smoke & Sour” a Polish style smoked wheat beer with sour notes.  The beer pours a very dark copper colour with a thick tan head.  The aroma is dominated by smoke with hints of some citrus lying below the surface.  The flavour is dominated by smoke even though the smoke is not strong with notes of mild sour from lactobacillus, citrus, wheat and an almost salty aftertaste that can be found in Oyster Stouts (which would lead me to believe that is part of the oysters flavour although I don’t eat them).  The alcohol content comes in at 4% with a very low IBU of 8.  This beer is a very interesting creation to be sure and if you enjoy smoked beers you will probably quite enjoy this beer.  I am not usually a smoked beer fan but the smoke on this isn’t overpowering but the oyster like finish at the end was not to my taste.  I am called crazy all the time though as I only enjoy one type of seafood in fish.  I am quite sure most people are going to really enjoy this one!

Commercial Description:  This Lacto fermented, Oak Smoked Wheat beer is not for the faint of heart.  Smoke, spice, and a slight sourness give this bold Polish style beer a surprisingly balanced aroma and flavour.

Brewed by Peter Schulz (S&O) & Brent Mills (FW) in New Westminster.  Bottled on January 1st, 2015

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Be Still – The Ale Apothecary

by Mike

Located in Bend Oregon is a brewery that plays it just a little different.  This brewery is called “The Ale Apothecary” and its motto is “Vintage-batch, barrel by barrel.  Cottage instead of factory.  Flavor before efficiency.  Love prior to spreadsheets.”  The beer isn’t cheap and it is just as hard to find as it is expensive but if you get lucky you are in for a treat!  For my second intro to this awesome brewery I was able to get a bottle of “Be Still” a mixed fermentation ale that has been aged  in Rye Whiskey & Pinot Barrels.  This beer is fermented with no yeast and only lactobacillus culture, brettanomyces and pediococcus and thus is recommended to be consumed within 3-6 months of bottling!  The beer pours a deep brown with no head as it is uncarbonated.  The aroma is dominated by lactobacillus, brettanomyces, wine, whiskey and a good fruitiness.  The flavour has some dominant notes of Pinot wine with lots of lactobacillus, brettanomyces, fruits, tartness, whiskey, oak, tannins, cocoa and some minor coffee notes.  The alcohol content of this batch was 8.4% but does range from 7-9% batch to batch.  This was a very interesting sour ale with tones of flavour.  If you can stomach the price then pick up a bottle or two if you can find it!

Commercial Description:  Be Still is our dark sour and presented barrel-still, without carbonation, for optimum mouthfeel and balance. Brewed with roasted barley and biscuit malts, the structure of the beer comes from acid produced by our house lactobacillus culture as well as acid from brettanomyces and pediococcus activity during the 10-month aging period in rye whiskey and fresh pinot noir barrels. Prior to bottling, the rye and wine portions are blended together and allowed to sit on cascara (sun-dried exterior fruit of the coffee bean) and cocoa nibs to add depth and complexity. The beer retains the fingerprint of our yeast culture and evolves in your glass, but is a wild departure from our lively bottle-fermented offerings. Be Still is a glimpse into an alternative beer universe that is just waiting to be explored. Due to the nature of this beer (yeast-free), it is recommended that you consume the beer fresh within 3-6 months of batch date on bottle to avoid oxidation flavors from shrouding your experience.

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De Witte – Dageraad Brewing

by Mike

Seasonal Release

From Dageraad Brewing out of Burnaby BC comes their “De Witte” a sour fermented Belgian Witbier.  The beer pours a cloudy golden yellow with a white head.  The aroma consists of citrus and orange peel up front with bready wheat malts, coriander and other spices and a mild sour funkiness.  The flavour is of bready wheat, orange peel, citrus, coriander, spices and a mild sourness from lactobacillus.  The alcohol content comes in at 5.2%.  I do not remember having very many sour Wit’s but this is a really integrating beer.  It takes a good summer style ale and gives it just that much more intriguing!

Commercial Description:  De Witte is a flavourful summer beer brewed in the tradition of the while ales of the Flemish Brabant.  Made with malted and unmalted wheat, seasoned with orange peel and coriander and fermented with Belgian yeast and lactobacillus.  De Witte is complex on the palate, with a refreshing, tart finish.

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