A Whale A Week: Side Project Blueberry Flanders

Now in my second year, A Whale A Week is my challenge to try (with an array of beer loving friends) a rare beer for every week of the year.  Last year I had a great time with this and have continued it for 2016.  Not every beer will be a truly "white whale" beer, but all are hard to find and a treat to try!  This week we try something different.  Tired of just trying out one beer (and lets be honest how can I really shrink my cellar at this rate) each week, we're going to break out a bunch of them!

Side Project Blueberry Flanders

I've reviewed one of Side Project's beers before (Saison du Fermier) HERE, so check it out for more background on the brewery and the super friendly wizard that creates such amazing beers for both Perennial Brewing and his own Side Project Brewing. For this tasting, Rob Wengler (one of my old high school friends, homebrewer, beer video journalist with Limited Release) shared this little bottle.  Along with us was my wife Sarajo--professed lover of sour beers.  The Blueberry Flanders is based on the Flanders red sour mixed fermentation style made most famous by Rodenbach in Belgium.  Obviously blueberries were used in the process, but I'm not sure how.  And the beer was aged in wine barrels to add complexity.  The 7% ABV beer has a 96 score on Ratebeer and a 91 on Beer Advocate.  


Aroma:

Eric: Just taking a whiff of this beer my salivary glands freaked out and caused me to gleek all over the place.  Very tart and tannic.  Blueberry skins.  Mix of acid, brett funkiness, and maybe some pediococcus.  Fruity and bright.  Eye opening.
Rob: Smells sour.  I do get a hint of mellow blueberry pie--but the tartest blueberry pie ever.

Appearance:

Eric: Highly carbonated and deep amber with pink highlights.  Looks like fruit soda.  Very fine white head fades to the glass edge quickly.  Excellent clarity with bubbles coalescing on the sides of the glass. 
Rob: Looks like Canadian grape/raisin soda.  Purple with a twinge of brown.  Lots of tiny bubbles like Champagne.
Sarajo: Can't see for the bubbles!

Flavor:

Eric:  As I take my first sip shivers go up and down my neck and spine.  So tart it almost hurts--like biting into a raw cranberry.  Has a hint of sweetness at the center, but is quite fleeting.  Blueberry is subtle and comes off more as the tannic skin of the berry rather than the sweet flesh.  Hint of pie cherry and lemon rind.  Stays with you after finished with a strong tart end.
Rob: Not mind-bendingly tart like I thought it would be.  I wouldn't say it was and overwhelming blueberry flavor, but think it comes through as a "rounding of the corners" of the sour ale.  Still makes me drool like a 2 year old (REDACTED) with a tooth coming in.
Sarajo: Mouthpuckeringly tart.

Overall:

Eric: A wonderfully sour beer, but really at the extreme edge of drinkability.  Glad this comes in a small bottle!  Much more tart and acidic than the typical blended Flanders style.  Despite all this, I still love it.  4.5
Rob: Light, crisp, of course effervescent.  I'm not a big sour guy but this is still pretty good.  4
Sarajo: 4.5

Overall Score: 4.42

A Whale A Week: Jester King Atrial Rubicite

Last week we talked about the stellar Mother Of All Storms from Pelican.  This week we change gears and try out a sour beer from Jester King--Atrial Rubicite!  This was part of an epic tasting with Surly Darkness and Goose Island BCS and was the only sour we tried.  Talk about a palate cleanser! We poured this into Surly Darkness and Steel Toe snifters for tasting.  Here is our cast of characters: Me (Eric)--homebrewer for over 25 years, beer judge, beer geek.  Sj--my wife who inexplicably is a woman of few words when it comes to reviewing beer.  Sean Kampshoff--Winner of National Homebrew Competition medals, beer judge, cool guy.  Jim & Cindy Moldenhauer--a very fun couple of craft beer geeks we got to know at several McCoy's Public House beer dinners.

Jester King Atrial Rubicite

So, living in Minnesota, I have always viewed Texas as a bit of a craft beer wasteland.  You know--land of lite beer, country music, big belt buckles, American flags, etc.  When I discovered that there is a farmhouse brewery specializing in sour beers in Austin, I was a little shocked and frankly a little skeptical.  Last year I made a big purchase of a local craft beer collector's cellar and found several of these little gems hiding in there.  Not knowing what to expect I did a little research on-line.  What?!  Turns out that Jester King beers are much in demand among the sour-head beer hoarders out there!  And I had a bunch just ready to try!  Oh, and the bottle labels are a work of art on most of these...

So on the beer: Atrial Rubicite is a barrel aged sour beer fermented with Washington raspberries.  It comes in 500 ml bottles with an awesome/disturbing label featuring a raspberry heart popping out of a ribcage.  ABV is only 5.8% so this is easy to drink.  They use their house yeast and wild local yeast to ferment this beer out.  Beer Advocate gives the beer a rating of a solid 100 and it is featured in their top 100 beers, while RateBeer also gives it a 100. 

Freya just loves sour beers!

Aroma:

Eric: Huge raspberry blast!  Very tart and makes the mouth pucker just sniffing this beer.  Slight sulfur notes.  Acetic, lactic, and brett funkiness.  No hops.  

Sean: Powerful raspberry aroma with a lactic sourness.  No malt character or hop aroma.  Jammy!

Jim: Raspberries!

Appearance: 

Eric: Bright clarity with a crazy red to deep pink color.  Fine pink head at the edge of the glass.  Some bubbles on sides of glass.

Sean: Bright ruby red.  Extremely clear.  Little head.

Cindy: Sailor's Sky--Red sky at night...

Jim: Red/amber

Flavor:

Eric: Fresh raspberry is front and center in this beer.  Tart but not overwhelmingly sour.  Has a strong tannic bite from fruit and seeds, also possibly from the barrel.  Has a woody, almost beet-like finish.  No alcohol warming.  No hops.  Body is light and spritzy.  Finish is slightly astringent and quite dry.  

Sean: Medium-high raspberry flavor with a similarly medium-high lactic sourness.  Finishes tart and extremely dry.

Cindy: Sour cherry and strawberry.

Jim: Tart, sour raspberries

Overall: 

Eric: Really pleasant beer, balanced right on the edge of too sour/dry with a lot of tannin.  I'd like just a hint more residual sweetness to balance it, but I'm splitting hairs.  This is one of the better American fruit lambics I've tried.  4.5

Sean: A tasty, cleanly lactic raspberry beer.  Refreshing.  Not overly sour and great raspberry character in aroma and flavor. 4.25

Cindy: 4.25

Jim: Pucker up! 4.5-4.75

Sj: "I'm a sour whore."  This is Raspberry-riffic! 4.5

Overall Tasting Score: 4.43

This was a very tasty beer, and impressive for using wild fermentation from Texas!  I'm excited to try the other Jester King beers I've got hiding in my cellar--they are safe no longer!