Tasting: Deliverance Kentucky Sour

Looks like it's been a little over a year since I brewed the Deliverance Kentucky Sour.  This beer was first conceived in the bathroom, but I'm happy to announce that the flavor is not reminiscent of one.  It's been sitting in the kegerator for quite a while, but most of it was consumed on my birthday in March.  It's gotten even better since then.  I was looking around for a funk-keg to put the all-brett beer in, and I decided to have a taste of the Deliverance and bottle the rest.  The first sips were really amazing!  I don't say that as a testament to my brewing, but only to the wonderful bugs that have worked their magic on this beer in the past year.  If I can congratulate myself for anything, it's for a sort of interesting base recipe, and patience.

This beer would have been pretty mediocre if not for a big contribution from the critters in AlB's second Bugfarm blend.  The New Jersey homebrewer and microbiologist was super cool in sending out some tubes of custom-made funk to fellow babblebelters.  He's also the guy who beat me out for first place in the Bruery's batch 50 competition, and I'm sure he deserved it!  Most importantly, I'm bottling up the last of my beer tonight to send him some samples.  Al, I hope you enjoy it man!

I wasn't planning on adding AlB's blend to this beer, but at 6 months there was hardly any funk and it really needed some "oopmh" that I thought would never come from the original bugs.  I guess something like Al's blend could be approximated by starting with a commercial sour culture and dosing it with commercial lambic dregs from time to time.

Here's a little out-take where I was trying to go for the redneck theme with a Bush Gnome.  Not the best application, but definitely the most use I ever got out of that thing.  Besides, Bush is not from Kentucky and I'm pretty sure even most rednecks can't stand him at this point.  

Whatever...here are the tasting notes:

Appearance:  Dark brown, clear with cherry-red highlights.  Great head stand which I assume is due to using rye malts.

Aroma:  Intense brett character and sourness up front, backed with a deep maltiness of chocolate, cherry, and even a bit of coffee and oak.  Clean sourness, no acetic acid perceived.

Flavor:  Sour, bright with clean maltiness and once again chocolate, cherry, and oak.  very low bitterness and a slight horsey brett character.  Great sweet/sour balance with balance leaning slightly towards sour.  No real alcohol or warmth was noticed.

Mouthfeel:  Creamy, medium-full body, and a bright, slightly puckering finish.  Could use some more carbonation.  I could have adjusted that in the keg, but I was only expecting to bottle a few bottles.   Turns out I had over a gallon of beer in there.

Overall:  I don't deserve to make such a great sour beer!  Base beer was good but it did not flesh out into a mature and complex product until the bug blend was added.  Most closely resembles a Flanders-type sour ale with a touch of coffee, and no acetic acid.  I hope I can repeat it.

 P.S.  If you are hoping for any NHC updates, I'm still hoping to get to them.  Basically we had such a great and intense time, that it would have been a shame to sit in front of a computer when there were tons of things to do, and beers to drink.  I'm still hoping to do at least one post on the conference and at least throw up a few of the more PG-rated pictures.

Brew Strong, 

Sean / Senior Wonton / Chupa