The Bruery’s Coton recently became just the fourth beer to earn the coveted Kaedrin A+ rating. Next up in my Bruery-fueled, liver-destroying, wallet-lightening, amazing-beer-filled winter is Oude Tart, a Flemish Red Ale aged in oak barrels. This is a descendant of Bruery brewer Tyler King’s first homebrewed sour beer (which he attempted at the ripe age of 17 or 18), though obviously that recipe has been tweaked and honed through the years (I’m guessing they didn’t age their original batch in giant oak barrels for a year), to the point where this was also the Bruery’s first major award-winning beer.
So I’m continuing my orbit around sour beers, though at this point, I should probably just land this crazy spaceship and partake in all the sour beer I can find. But enough babbling, let’s drink this stuff:
The Bruery Oude Tart – Pours a dark brown color with half a finger of bubbly off-white head that quickly subsides to a ring that shows pretty good retention. Smells of slightly twangy funk, some earthiness, a nice oak character, and plenty of fruity aromas, maybe cherry. Taste starts with a slap of sourness, with sweet, bright sour cherry notes quickly emerging along with some subtle oak notes, a little earthiness, with that sourness reasserting itself in the finish. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, lightly carbonated and smooth, a little acidic. A little mouth coating goodness here, but nothing overwhelming. Overall, a top tier sour beer! A
Beer Nerd Details: 7.5% ABV bottled (750 ml capped). Drank out of a tulip glass on 11/10/12. Label sez: 060712 LOT39 (presumably bottling date)
This winter is shaping up to be pretty awesome. I’ve got a couple more Bruery beers lined up, including one absolute monster that just arrived in the mail, not to mention a couple of upcoming bottle releases by local breweries and, uh, some other trades (no jinxing, but some other whales will be had in the next few months).
I really liked this one. It was waaay more approachable than Tart of Darkness (the only other sour of theirs that I’ve had). I didn’t take notes on it, either. I just sat back and enjoyed.
I think this one is okay but I found a sharp bitterness from the oak that I didn’t quite enjoy. It came and went as I drank my glass so it wasn’t unenjoyable, but I didn’t like it a ton. Funny enough, Beerbecue, I liked Tart of Darkness way more. However, I love vinegary (acetic) sours and Tart of Darkness was super vinegary. I have a bottle in the basement that I’m looking forward to opening at some point with my wife.
Also, see you later at Dock Street Mark!
That’s funny, I was thinking that the oak in this was somewhat subdued… I didn’t get much bitterness at all, I found it very approachable, but then, I seem to really enjoy big oak flavors! Obviously I thought this one worked pretty darn well.
I have not had Tart of Darkness, but I’ve seen wildly divergent opinions about it. Beer Samizdat rated it a 3, but I’ve seen it get raves from a bunch of other people.
I’m curious if this is just differing palates or actual variations in bottles/batches (wild ales are apparently very different to control and from personal experience, they can vary from batch to batch)…
Dock Street ahoy! Looking forward to it…
Quite possibly a mix of bottle variation, draft variation, and palate variations. I find sours to be a poor overall categorization since they can taste so different. But, now I just annoyed everyone that thinks beer is already too categorized.
Ah, yeah, being on draft could also represent a big difference. Beer styles/categorization is a tricky beast, but I view them like genres. They usually give you the general thrust of what to expect, but there’s a ton of variation and blurred lines and hybrids. Valuable, so long as you don’t get too worked up about it…