By Kendell Worden, Krog General Manager
Some of our regulars are aware of my past as a brewery microbe wrangler, so they will certainly not be surprised that I’m choosing to highlight beers that have been influenced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae’s tinier prokaryotic counterparts or by their leather jacket-clad cousins, Brettanomyces. Tart or funkified beers can serve as gorgeous beverage preludes to spring.
And rightly beloved, highly skilled producers? We’ve got ‘em all. Barrique, Tilquin, Bond Brothers, Jester King, Fonta Flora, De Garde, Allagash, Modern Times… If you love an alternatively fermented beer, let us give you a tour de shelves to point out these gems the next time you pop in!
Select highlights:
Allagash Stories Told ($14.99) is a fruit-blasted blend of a Flemish red ale and a dark American-style strong sour ale, the latter of which was rested in bourbon barrels. Maine-grown cherries and blackberries seamlessly complement the esters and acids produced by the workhorse unicellular critters.
From Garden Path Fermentation we have The Transcendental Blur ($19.99), a barrel-aged, native yeast megablend that undergoes secondary fermentation on pinot noir pomace and juice. This beer is criminally slept on! Our crew popped a bottle this week, and it is holding up beautifully, a symphony of bright acid and mellow oak with a slight tannic quality to its dryness.
We have a messload of beers from Tennessee’s master blenders Barrique at the moment, but one of the most intriguing is their Petit Sipper ($14.99). This one’s for those of us who love a cute low ABV moment that still delivers complexity. A tart table saison clocking in at 3%, it is refermented on locally-grown watermelons. Insanely refreshing with a sour-newbie-friendly gentle funk and low-moderate acidity level.
Finally, from Oregon’s de Garde we have The Château ($29.99), a melange of spontaneously fermented beers that boasts an average oak-aging period of 29 months. The kind of elegance that this beverage exhibits takes time. Citron, melon, honey, and white florals greet the palate on first sip, and the oak-derived vanilla and tannins round off the slightly sharp barnyard-y edges.
