Wild Ale

Today is my last day in Kansas City and I'm finishing off the last few beers that are still in the cellar. I've been holding on to this bottle of Russian River Consecration for a while now and I figure it's finally time to open it up. I picked up this bottle in Denver about six months ago and judging by the date code on the bottle, it had been sitting on the shelf for quite some time. This bottle is from batch 004X4, meaning it was brewed over two years ago and it's been bottled for 16 months now. I'm not worried about the freshness, I'm more excited for the complexity and depth the aging has hopefully added to this sour Wild Ale.

Russian River beers are always a treat. They aren't available in my area so I generally only have one while away on vacation. About four months ago I took a trip to Denver and brought back a few bottles of different Russian River beers. Tonight I decided to open up one of them because tomorrow I'm heading back to Colorado and will hopefully be able to pick up a few more bottles to bring home. This bottle of Temptation is the third Russian River beer I've been able to bring home and log a review of. The name of this beer seems fitting, I'm very tempted by this corked and caged bottle with "sour ale aged in Chardonnay barrels" written on the label.

The way I heard the story behind this beer is that Eric was a lowly junior brewer at New Belgium and this was his Longshot moment (a la Sam Adams). This was relayed to me by someone who claims to have heard it first hand while on tour in Fort Collins, so make of that what you will. What I do know for a fact is that this beer is an ale aged on wood for "up to three years" and fermented with peach juice. All of that sounds great... but not all of that comes through in the end.

Avery's Brabant is really a beer unlike any other that I've had. Avery describes this beer as a Wild Ale that has been aged in Zinfandel barrels. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, front the first pour of the Brabant I could tell Avery wasn't joking about the Zinfandel barrels. This beer is dark, almost black, and when pouring it into the glass you can see a dark red, almost purplish, tint to the beer... not unlike a dark red wine. The Zinfandel did rub off on this beer quite a bit. Every time you put the glass up to your lips you get a nose full of rich red wine with just a faint hint of caramel malt. As the beer warms to room temperature you can really pick up on the Zinfandel flavor. While chilled this beer is a bit more complex. Straight out of a lightly chilled bottle the Brabant is light and bubbly with a tart cherry twang and a dark chocolate aftertaste. The beer remains dark throughout drinking and retains all of the sweet malts and chocolate flavor, even as the Zinfandel flavors intensify exponentially with each degree on the thermometer. The combination of flavors in this beer is definitely different compared to Avery's other 12 ounce bottles. If I had to compare this Wild Ale to any other beer I've had before it'd have to be a quadrupel or a barley wine... only lighter.