Pucker Up and Party!

A sour beer tasting, some might cringe... Others might be jealous.. We were stoked!!

It happened on November 22nd at our local place of better beer worship The Oldsmar TapHouse. About 10 people who showed up each bringing something to share some being really old and some pretty fresh and new. I had personally acquired my offerings in a variety of places some of them even being hand carried back from the very wonderful place from which they had originated. Brussels, Belgium or more importantly Cantillion Brewery (more about that at a later date).

The winner of the day (well they were all winners for the most part, except for that Mikkeller It's Alive no one cared much for that one. Almost musty, in the finish weird..) was the Cantillion Vigneronne 2000 that I had been holding on to for quite a while. When very young this beer was more sour than anything else and it while it still pretty much was over the top as a lot of Cantillion beers tend to be the complexities from the addition of Muscat grapes had added a depth that made it more enjoyable than I think anyone imagined it would. We were also very fond of the 1997 Kreik which had mellowed only slightly and held the nuances of the cherries, usually the fruit flavor is the first part to wane however this was a nice superise. A few other notables; Matt brought a few goodies including a Lindemans's Cuvee Rene Kriek 2008 of which I believe he said there were only a few bottles around that had been bestowed as special gifts to only the best distributors.. Lucky for us, Matt is one of them!! He also brought a Girardin Kriek 2005 which he brought back from his travels in Belgium that was enjoyed by all, but I have to say even with all of those goodies my favorite was the New Belgium La Terroir 2005 which he was luck to get straight from the brewery... There is a funny story behind it, but I will leave it out to protect the innocent and the guilty!! This beer (from one of my favorite breweries) is barrel aged for 2 years then dry-hopped with amarillo and cascade hops! Yummy sour and full of that wonderful hop aroma, very limited I thoroughly liked this one! The last I will mention was the Struise Earthmonk with very distinct vinegary/tart cherry flavors, a newer brewery that I has not heard much about yet and have since definitely looked into!

There are so many more which I have listed below and they were all fantastic, I could leave notes about all of them but that would most likely get very long winded (more than already). We complemented the day with a small variety of soft cheeses fit for pairing with these wonderful treats. For this tasting I chose Chevere, Humbolt Fog, Port Salut, and one other that was my favorite but totally and forgetting as the day does become a little cloudy towards the end!

A little beer geek written porn for the eyes:

-Allagash Interlude batch #1 2005

-Cantillon Irish 2005

-Cantillon Cuvee des Champions

-Cantillon Grand Cru 2003

-Cantillon Fou Foune

-Cantillon Kriek 1997

-Cantillon 50N x 4E

-Cantillon Lou Pepe 2004

-Cantillon Vigneronne 2000

-Lindemans Cuvee Rene Kriek 2008

-Lindemans Cuvee Rene 2007

-New Belgium La Folie 2008

-New Belgium La Terroir 2005

-Girardin Kriek 2005

-Panil Barriquee 2006

-Jolly Pumpkin Blanca 2006

-Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo batch #1

-Russian River Beatification

-Heavy Weight Saison la Soeur 05

-Heavy Weight CH-Chuck 05

-Struise Earthmonk

-Liefmans Goudenband

-Mikkeller it's Alive

-Haandbryggeriet Haandbakk

-Upland Blueberry Lambic

-3 Founteinen Schaerbeekse Kriek

We didn't even finish all of the bottles we had, hopefully we will gather again another time for a few of them.. I will keep you posted, in the mean time if you have never had these treats go and try a few. Challenge your palatte!

Cheers!