Epic Brewing/Crooked Stave Elder Brett

I mentioned last month in my review of Blue Law Porter that I recently had Elder Brett by the same company, and would get to it later.  So here it is.  Technically, it is a collaboration between them and Crooked Stave.


Name:                 Epic Brewing/Crooked Stave Brewing Elder Brett Saison-Brett Golden Ale
Style:                  Saison
Twist:                  Brewed with brett and “aged in wine barrels”
Strength:             9.5%


Notes: served in a Duvel tulip.  Poured from a 22oz bomber (“1 PT. 6 Fluid Ounces”).  Release #2,  “malt beverage aged in wine barrels.”  Enjoyed over two nights (w/wine stopper).

Completely clear gold with a slightly orange hue.  Carbonation is extremely light considering what this is, and considering it is poured into a Duvel glass.  Could be I didn’t rinse it enough, maybe.  Anyway, not really any foam and lacing is very small.  The stream of bubbles from the laser-etching* is steady but slow, not like the usual stream most beers get from this glass.

The smell has no hint of farmhouse ale whatsoever; it is completely dominated by brett.  Which is rarely a bad thing, I might add.  Reminds me a bit of aged Matilda, actually.  Flowery and perfume-esque, with some notes of apple skin and that slightly-sweaty-but-impossible-to-nail-down brett aroma.  So far, so good.

Oh boy, lots of brett here.  Everything I mentioned above is here in spades.  Standouts include apple skins, white grape skins, mild lemon peel (not bitter though like some farmhouse strains; more aromatic like....er, dish soap), flowers, and chardonnay.  The bottle proclaims that this was aged in wine barrels without saying which; it tastes like chardonnay barrels to me.  Perhaps it is the wine influence or perhaps it is just the inherent alcohol in the beer, but there is a bit of warmth I detect going down.  I have to focus on it to really taste it though.

The mouthfeel is a bit thick for a brett-fermented beer, normally beers with this yeast strain are dry.  I’m beginning to think the carbonation is just off, not that I didn’t rinse the glass right (could be a mixture of the two as well).  It’s the only true downside to this beer, and is something one can easily overlook if you like the brett flavors.  I must note however that the thickness is purely a carbonation issue and not the result of under-attenuation; the beer isn’t overly sweet or anything.


I like this beer.  I’m not sure it is worth the $12.99 I paid for it, as it is pretty similar to aged Matilda (with chardonnay flavors instead of cloves), but it is tasty.  A good first-time introduction to these companies.




*completely unrelated point: on most beer glasses, "laser-etching" is a gimmick with minimal effect on the beer.  This is not the case with the laser-etched version of the Duvel glass.  Probably the best beer glass around.