8 replies to this topic

[passlaku]

https://www.nytimes....html?ref=diningMy favorite passage:Russian River uses all four strains of Brettanomyces commercially available to brewers, even though the yeasts could destroy 90 percent of the brewery’s beers that aren’t supposed to be sour. To avoid cross-contamination, Mr. Cilurzo limits Brettanomyces brewing to a specific area and equipment. Brewers working in that space aren’t allowed to enter other parts of the brewery on the same day and are encouraged to wash their clothes after work.Some neighboring Sonoma County winemakers consider the yeast a scourge capable of destroying entire vintages of wine and refuse to sell Russian River the chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet barrels in which the sour ales age.“Some winemakers won’t even enter our brewery for a beer because they’re so disgusted by Brettanomyces,” Mr. Cilurzo said.

[strangebrewer]

Haha, yea my dad sent me a link to that this morning. He's seen what I have growing in my basement. My favorite quote was:

“We still get customers who call to let us know a bottle of our barrel-aged beer had gone bad because it tasted sour,”

Say something for the RR name that people will buy those beers (and they aren't cheap!) without having any idea what they are getting.

[ANUSTART]

Great... now all the hipsters are gonna start drinking sour beers because the NY Times told them it was cool. As if they weren't expensive enough!

[passlaku]

I went to Whole Foods in Nashville this weekend and they had New Belgiums/La Follete's Lips of Faith (22oz) for $15. That was a bit rich for just being curious about what a sour brown would taste like. I also passed up BLVD's Brett-Saison for $11 a bottle in Indianan. Again, I am just curious about results. I remember I had BJ's Bier de Garde at the NHC in Cincy and thought that I'd thrown out batches that taste like this, guess I was just not sophisticated enough to appreciate the contamination.

[Jimmy James]

I remember reading about RR being banned if you will by some wineries a while back. I've been to the lab that does testing for the wineries up there - brett is a major spoilage factor and they fear it big time. Doesn't surprise me that they view Vinnie and crew as a petri dish of nasties. A lot of wineries up there have moved to spontaneous fermentation so they probably are more concerned about what's in the local environment. This reminds me I gotta go tap my Kriek soon. If any of you are going to be in San Diego I will have plenty of sour on tap for a while!

[passlaku]

It is also about refusing to sell barrels to Russian River because doing so is implying that the wineries' barrels have brett. That is probably something some vintners don't want to get around.

[strangebrewer]

This reminds me I gotta go tap my Kriek soon. If any of you are going to be in San Diego I will have plenty of sour on tap for a while!

It's 1079 miles to San Diego, I've got a full tank of gas, half a keg of Flanders red, it's dark, and I'm thirsty.

[Jimmy James]

It's 1079 miles to San Diego, I've got a full tank of gas, half a keg of Flanders red, it's dark, and I'm thirsty.

head west on 70, then at some point south!You coming out sometime for a conference or something? I think I'll have this Kriek around for a while. If I am coming out to CO I will let you know. Thinking about doing something like the Durango or Telluride to Moab hut-to-hut or some other epic MTB/camping trip in September, could be homebrew involved....

[strangebrewer]

head west on 70, then at some point south!You coming out sometime for a conference or something? I think I'll have this Kriek around for a while. If I am coming out to CO I will let you know. Thinking about doing something like the Durango or Telluride to Moab hut-to-hut or some other epic MTB/camping trip in September, could be homebrew involved....

Unfortunately I don't see any trips coming up that would land me in San Diego. They don't let me out much. a MTB hut to hut you say? Funny as I have been thinking about getting into MTB riding. If I follow through and get a bike I could be up for something in September if you've got space on the trip. That and it can't interfere with grape harvest . By September I should have my flanders brown and maybe even my lambic bottled. Both of them pack a punch.