A Whale A Week: Logsdon Peche 'n Brett

A Whale A Week is my attempt to make a dent in my beer cellar, while sharing these rare beers with friends who will take the time to help me judge and appreciate them.  Last week we tasted the wonderful Lift Bridge Silhouette.  This week we take a trip to the farm:

Logsdon Farmhouse Ales Peche 'n Brett

Logsdon is a brewery hearkening back to the traditional Belgian and French style of small batch brewing on a rural farmhouse.  Located in the beautiful Hood River area of Oregon (I took a trip out there a few years back and would love to spend more time there) the brewery itself is actually located in a big red barn!  They focus on Belgian style saisons and fruit beers, with a focus on sour beers.  They brew small batches and bottle in 750 ML bottles for limited sale.

The Peche 'n Brett is a version of their Seizoen Bretta aged on 1.5 pounds of fresh Oregon peaches per gallon of beer.  The beer is oak aged, then bottled and primed with pear juice for final refermentation in the bottle.  In true American style, the ABV on this one is 10%, nearly double that of most Belgian fruit beers.  Peche 'n Brett won a gold medal in the 2012 World Beer Cup and a silver in the the 2014 GABF.  Those medals are some pretty wicked bling for such a boutique brewery!  Because of both this notoriety and the sheer rarity of Logsdon beers, they are becoming much in demand the past few years.  Beer Advocate has them rated at 99, and RateBeer at 100.  Alas they do not distribute in Minnesota.  I was happy enough to inherit this beer from a large cellar acquisition last year and am finally getting around to trying it!  There have only been three vintages of this beer, starting in 2012.  I believe mine was the 2013 vintage.

For this tasting I had friend and uber beer geek Jason Tuttle over to my bar.  As usual, my wife Sj tasted along with us, putting in her two cents on the beer.

I did a little tweaking of the bottle label art...I always did love James and the Giant Peach

Aroma:
Eric: Tart and very lactic at first whiff.  After you get over that sourness, it has a distinct peaches and cream aroma.  The cream/lactose nose is really unusual, and perhaps the first I've noticed in a non-sweet stout beer.  Hint of earthiness as warms.  Floral honey as swirled.  Reminds me of the nose on Cascade Apricot.  No hops.
Jason: Lactic, brett, very tart.  Peach.  Light blossom smell.

Appearance:
Medium gold to light orange color.  Quite hazy.  Thick white head with very fine bubbles.  Head much more persistent than typical in a sour.  When we first opened this, foam came slowly rolling out of the bottle top, but not a true gusher.

Flavor:
Eric: A hint of tartness and earthy funk from brett.  A fair amount of lactic/citrus bite.  Peach shows up midway through the taste.  Despite a creamy, slightly overcarbonated mouthfeel, the flavor lacks that peaches and cream I noted in the aroma.  There is a pleasant tart peach skin/fuzz flavor rather than the sweet peach flesh.  Leather and earth notes as it warms up.  No hop.  No alcohol warming.  Finish is very dry.
Jason: BRETT!  Very crisp dry mouthfeel.  Great peach followed by a little oak.

Overall:
Eric: From the aroma this seemed to be more lactic (ala Cascade beers) but flavor is more complex and brett shines with more funkiness.  The peach is subtle, but really there, tasting fresh and real.  In terms of ranking with other stone-fruit sours I've had recently I'd put this above Cascade Apricot and just below Cantillon Fou' Foune.  Incredibly refreshing!  I was most shocked to discover that this beer is 10% ABV!  It tastes more like 6%.  I give it a 5
Jason: Perfect summer day beer.  Light, refreshing.  Peach, a bit of funk and a lot of brett.  Love this beer. 4.5
Sj: 4

Overall score: 4.5 out of 5

A great beer to ring in the Spring!  I have one more bottle put aside and plan to crack it while sitting out in my gazebo soon.

Next week we will travel all the way down to an area that used to be a true craft beer desert (or swamp): Florida!  We'll be trying out the California Brandy Barrel Hunahpu from Cigar City...