Ommegang Brewery's Three Philosophers Wine Barrel: Quadrupel Ale Blended with Kriek Lambic

This is the best of several worlds. Ill-Gotten Booty fans know that I'm partial to quads, especially bourbon-barrel aged. This one is aged in wine barrels, not bourbon, but that hardly detracts from the quality. I've also been experimenting with sours lately. This version of Three Philosophers is blended with Kriek ale. A Kriek is a lambic, a traditional Belgian ale that is brewed with wild yeast. Lambics usually are flavored with fruit. A kriek is brewed with cherries. I often pair my Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing with a cassis, or black current, lambic. Quadrupels or quads, are typically high in alcohol content, tend to be a medium dark hue and a smooth taste reminiscent of whiskey. 

Three Philosophers Wine Barrel pours a coppery hue, with a teeny-tiny beige head. Initially the taste experience was one of a fine bourbon, with cherry undertones. There is medium alcohol heat with a hint of other dark fruits hiding just beyond the veil of perception. As it warmed up there were suggestions of vanilla and toffee. There is a faint tartness, but not as much as I suspected when I saw "kriek" on the label. 

Overall, one of the few beers which earned the coveted "10" on the IGB Scale. 

 

Mikeller Passion Pool Gose with Passion Fruit

Surely I don't need to rehash for you IGB fans what a Gose is, but it's a sour style that originated in Goslar, Germany. It doesn't conform to the  Reinheitsgebot, the German beer purity laws since coriander and sea salt are added. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that the Gose style has become my favorite. Passion Pool pours a pale hazy golden hue, with a barely visible white head. It's pretty tart, maybe an 8 on the IGB Sour Scale. The passion fruit is upfront, with some lemon as well. There's a bit of green apple in there as a special guest. Recommended as a summer ale, would go great with spicy tacos or BBQ pork. 
 

Duclaw Brewing Sour Me Unicorn Farts Glittered Sour Ale

A partnership with Diablo Doughnuts' doughnut of the same name, this is a crazily fun beer. Supposedly brewed with fruity cereal, there is a taste of Fruity Pebbles, along with lemon, apricot and peach. Unicorn Farts is pretty high on the sour scale, not for the sour-phobic at all. It's brewed with pilsner barley as well as wheat, giving it a light feel. I'm not seeing any of the promised edible glitter, but perhaps on the second pour (it's a 16 oz can). Gimmicky, but I'd drink it again. 

Ommegang Apripêche Tart Wheat Ale with Peach and Apricot

 

Ommegang Apripêche is the last of the stash of sours in the fridge. First off, this l'il number is tart, - it's definitely worthy of the name! Ommegang Brewery, from Cooperstown, NY, is one of those breweries that never produces a bad beer. Apripêche is no exception. It's a combination of a Flemish Sour and a Belgian Witbier. Underlying the tartness there's the unmistakable signature of a Belgian ale. The apricot and peach flavors blend seamlessly with coriander and orange peel adding to the melange. There's a modest 15 IBUs, but the 6.3% ABV gives it a nice kick. I can imagine pairing Apripêche with a sharp cheddar cheese, or some crusty bread. 8.5 on the IGB scale. 

Dogfish Head & Rodenbach Breweries Collaboration: Vibrant P'Ocean

Still working through Moran's collection of sours. Dogfish Head's Vibrant P'Ocean is a collaboration with Rodenbach Brewery. The Belgian brewery contributed a foeder-aged sour. A foeder is a wooden barrel, usually used to age wine, but has been used recently to age sour ales. Dogfish Head's portion was a kettle aged sour. Kettle aging refers to a quick-souring process rather than the slow process of aging and souring found in lambics, goses, berliner wiesses and other traditional styles. The Dogfish Head sour was brewed with pilsner malt, malted wheat and elderberries, with some elderflower and Belgian fleur-de-sel mixed in. Vibrant P'Ocean a cranberry hue, and the main taste is indeed cranberries (maybe elderberries taste like cranberries). I don't know if there's a standard for measuring tartness in ales, but I'd give it a 3 out of 10 on the IGB tartness scale. There's a little bit of lemonade in the mix, as well as cherry. Like yesterday's offering, this might be a good introduction for a neophyte into the world of sours.  

Great Divide Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Ale

Great Divide Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Ale is today's offering. Sour ales are among the few styles where fruit flavors add to beer, rather than detract from it. I expected the color to be pinkish, but it poured a hazy straw hue, with a fast-disappearing white head. I was surprised that the tartness was rather subdued, although the rhubarb itself should have imparted its own tartness. Not much else to say about it, but it might be a good introduction to sour beers for those who haven't tried them yet. 

Keg Creek Oktoberfest Märzen

I used to keep a strict beer drinking calendar, drinking certain beers only during their season. While many beers are brewed year-round, some traditionally are only brewed and served at specific times of year. The Märzen style, popularly referred to as Oktoberfest is a Bavarian lager that is brewed in March (whence comes the term Märzen) and served, after lagering throughout the Spring and Summer, August through October. I always reserved my Märzen drinking for Autumn. Not the solar autumn, which runs September 22nd-ish through December 20th, but the pagan Celtic Autumn, running from Lughnasadh (August 2nd) through Samhain (October 31st). And here it is, Lughnasadh 2020 and on my beer-buying venture to Moran's I spied one lone Märzen in the single bottle cooler. 

Keg Creek's version of this Bavarian favorite pours a clear bronze, with a lacy copper head that dissipates quickly. Being a lager, the fruity esters that give an ale its character won't be present, but there's still plenty of flavor. Like most Märzens, the malt is much more prominent that the hops, giving it a breadiness, with sides of caramel and biscuit. 

Nice start to the Oktoberfest season. Even if Oktoberfest was cancelled.