Beers from the Bretts festival

As I wrote in the previous entry, this is fully dedicated to describe everything I smelled and tasted in the festival "Carnivale Brettanomyces en andere wilde dieren". I will describe them in the order I tested them, and I will give all the data I can about them. I will try to be wuick, as I know this was what you were really waiting for...

-De Eem (Xtreem English IPA & lambic). Tap at In de Wildeman, 5,2%. First beer, first surprise. I didn't know these sour beers, and I was not thinking about finding these smells and flavours.  This one, was golden and muddy, with medium white foam. Quite sour smell, and about flavour, I could say it was a hoppy cyder. It was cold when I arrived and with the hot day we had, it was perfect and refreshing.

-Oersoep (Brettanosaurus Sauvin IPA). Tap at de Prael, 5%. Another big surprise, this one for good. I was waiting more sourness, but this beer was orange quite opaque, with white hard foam. Tropical smell, like green mango, and a bit of Brett, but very herbal. Flavour, almost no malts, tropical hop had erased them, and the same small sour as in the nose. In my opinion, one of the champions of the event.

-Oersoep (In vitro IPA). Tap at de Prael, 5%. This one was a bit more red, amber and dirty with lasting white cream. In the nose was more like an English IPA, soft hop and some malts, and the flavour was hop, grass, and at the end something between toasted and sweet very nice.

-Rooie Dop (Funky Acid cheeks). Taste from bottle at Bierkoning, 5%. This grape lambis, golden and with low foam, has a very very sour aroma, like a white wine, and about the flavour, nothing like hop or malts, only sourness.

-Ramsgate brewery (East KEnt IPA), taste from bottle at Bierkoning, 6,5%. 100% Kent hops (Brittish local hops for a british craft beer). Amber very clean, very low on foam. Smooth malty aroma with some hops in the end, and the flavour, cereal with a very light hop, but very long in the end.

-Boon (Marriage Parfait Geuze). Grape lambic refermented for 24 months in barrels. Taste from bottle at Bierkoning. Light golden colour, a bit dirty, and a lot of foam, but very short in time. Sweet sour aroma, like a good white wine, and in the mouth it felt as champagne, very worked.

-Boon (Kriek Boon) Cherry lambic, taste from bottle at Bierkoning. It seemed as red wine, transparent, low on cream. Sweet and fruity smell, but about the flavour, it was a bit more sour than I expected.

-The Monarchy (Strong sour ale). Taste from bottle at Bierkoning, 10%. A sour porter with high alcoholic percentage, brown very clean in the glass with some golden foam. Toasted aroma low in sourness, and in the mouth it was as a porter a bit acid, with some sweet points in the end.

-Jopen (Lacto Koyt Lambicus) Taste from bottle at Bierkoning. Lambic porter aged in Bourbon barrels for 24 months. Opaque brown, golden cream quite long in time. Sour aroma to be a black beer, and a quite toasted flavour, with sour points. You could notice perfectly lactobacilus, but not any hop or bourbon.

-Klein Puimpje (Old barley Brett special) taste from bottle at Bierkoning, Barley wine with Bretts, 10,5%. Amber, quite clean colour and a lot of light golden foam. Bitter aroma, quite malty. A lot of malty flavour also, quite toasted, but low on hops and quite lower in Brett sourness.

HOMEBREWERS

And now, the three homebrewed beers I could taste:

-De kromme Haring (Twisted Kipper) Tap at de Prael, 6,7%. 50 IBUs, with Citra, Centennial and Chinook as hops. Golden quite orange colour, low on foam but very hard. Fruity aroma, very sweet, tropical, fresh. More sweetness in the mouth, and a bit of light toasted malts. Almost nothing of Bretts, and in my opinion, the other winner of the event.

-Zevende Hemel (Bripa) Bottle at de Prael. Red IPA with Bretts as second fermentation, 7,5%. Cascade, Willamette and Simcoe. Dark amber coloured, muddy, with a lot of light golden cream. Sour hoppy smell, and quite strong hooppy taste, sourness and quite hard toasted at the end.

-Zevende Hemel (Porter) Bottle at de Prael, 8,1%. Second fermentation with Bretts, black opaque colour, and strong foam, quite more like a stout rather than a porter. Strong toasted aroma, like chocolate, some coffee, and strong porter flavour with and unusual acid ending.

And to finish this chapter of homebrewers, I would like to thank Jan, from Bierkoning, who let me take one of each Zevende Hemel bottles. This let me show them to a couple of friends who enjoyed tasteing them in a barbecue a bit after the festival, and now, both bottles have a very special place in my beer bottles collection.

And this was all about the Bretts festival, see you soon!