Conundrums all around. If you’re a brewer, and you embark on a massive 14.7% barrel aged imperial porter aged in rum barrels only to find out that the resulting beer was infected with lactobacillus, what do you do? Well, this happened for The Bruery and Three Floyds collaboration beers Rue D’Floyd and Floyd D’Rue, and their solution was to release the bottles, but with a Caveat Emptor attached. They went all full disclosure on us, and informed the public that they should drink the bottles before 6/30. Those that did, seemed to get a pretty fantastic beer. Dipshits like myself only managed to accidentally acquire one of these deviants via a beer mule two months too late.
So you can obviously see my answer to the consumer’s conundrum, which is whether or not to buy something you know has the potential to be infected. Given the transparency, it’s a little hard to get too worked up over this, but on the other hand, damnit, this would have been a spectacular beer if I had managed to acquire it fresh. Not particularly surprising, given the fact that it’s a collaboration between two of the best brewers around, but still. I get that this was an expensive batch of beer, so again, I can’t really begrudge them from releasing it and trying to recoup their losses, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. Especially because you can really see how spectacular this beer could have been. It was also pretty damn expensive. Let’s just hope they get together to try this again, this time without the lacto infection. Even as it stands, I managed to take down a 750 of this infected beast with little real challenge…
Three Floyds & The Bruery Floyd D’Rue – Pours a very dark brown color with a finger of light brown head. The smell… is slightly troubling. This could end up being ok, because there are lots of spices and rum and oak and vanilla in there, but maybe a faint twang indicating infection… or is my foreknowledge playing tricks on me? Well, no, it does seem to have a light infection going on. It’s not entirely unpleasant, but it does overtake most of the flavors in the taste. You get less of that spice and rum, and the oak aging contributes more of a general richness and full bodied mouthfeel than the oak or vanilla. It doesn’t really come off as sour, but theres a sorta tart fruit thing going on that doesn’t really match well with the rest of the beer. Overall, this could have been a great beer, and even as it is, I think I’d rather drink it than a generic fizzy lager, but it’s ultimately a disappointment. C+
Beer Nerd Details: 14.7% ABV bottled (750 ml). Drank out of a snifter on 9/5/14.
I guess they can’t all be winners, though this one surely would be, were it not for that pesky infection. Moar Three Floyds reviews coming soon, so don’t touch that dial…