Back to Hop Leaf

Recently, I decided to start my own little Brett experiment to try and understand more thoroughly how different strands of Brett affect the taste of beer.  I still have to use the vial of Brett Lambicus that I have sitting in the fridge, and luckily I saw that Hop Leaf had Goose Island's Matilda with Brett Lambicus.  I decided to stop by to see how my beer my taste (because apparently that is important) and found there were around 10 other beers I wanted to try.  Unfortunately my friends had to run to the airport so I only tried around 3.  Apparently it is unhealthy to drink 10 beers in one sitting alone.  Or 10 beers in general.

Matilda Lambicus

The appearance is generally what you would expect from the normal Matilda with less head retention.  The difference comes in the smell in taste.  The smell has the phenolic character you are used to from Matilda, but quickly a musty cellar character with a prominent earthy character.  The Brett taste was more evident in the taste with a slight band aid flavor complimented by the musty cellar character.  There was also a slight lemon that fell beneath the earthy notes and some leather.  Very similar to Orval, wish they had this more available.

Founders Oatmeal Stout (Nitro)

The menu told me this was fairly rare for the Chicago market.  The menu would not lie to me.  Here, the roasty character was the most prominent.  Although there was some slight chocolate and coffee, it fell behind the roasted barely.  The most notable thing about the beer was with the full stout flavor, it was only at 4.5% alcohol.  Nice to see that Founders is embracing the notion that you do not need higher alcohol content to have a full flavored beer.  That being said, I do not expect anyone to listen.

De Proef Brouwerij & Cigar City Tropical Tripel

This was probably the most interesting beer of the day.  Most individuals are under the belief that Brett only makes beers funky (and some are under the belief that it is a main souring agent).  However, this beer shows that is not always true.  Here, the Brett brought out some wonderful tropical fruit character that was way more complex than I have seen in beers that have actually added fruit.  There was a distinct smell and taste of mangos and pineapple with dashes of peaches (these were the fruits added).  A pheno
lic clove was there as well that mixed with an almost bubble gum flavor at the end of the beer. Alcohol started to peak at the end of the beer.  No earthy character here.  Hoping my brett trois beer has a similar character.

Three great beers, and it was hard to stop here seeing as they also had The Bruery's Oude Tart, Jolly Pumpkin, and multiple berliner weisses.  Oh well, I guess I will just have to go back...