North By Northwest Flemish Sour Ale

Brewed by North By Northwest Restaurant and Brewery
Style: Sour Ale
Austin, Texas USA

I can’t belive they made this in Austin, TX. Just as good if not better than some I have had from Belgium. Pour is deep burnt orange, white to off white head. Treacly and not very voluminous. Nose is exquisite. Bubblegum at first and then a punch of sourness. Acrid sourness. Slight lemon zing as well with a faint hint of oak and cherry as Walt described. Flavors shine as well. Cherry at first and then a dry tanin like sourness buzzes through your mouth. Lemon zest and a hint of ketchup, which was welcome. Mouthfeel is full and round, slick enough to have a body, thin enough to augment the sourness positively. Excellent beer.

Great pour on this, big explosive nose. I get apples, cherries, grapes on the nose and it follows through on the palate as well. If you roll this on the back of your tongue it will make it curl. Great stuff. Glad I got to try this on several occasion as well as on tap at NXNW.

Pour is hazed bright reddish brown with soft bubbles of carbonation delicately floating up throughout the glass...small ring of an off white head...smell is cherry, light oak, with maybe some funky straw and bandaid (in the good way), along with some light bubblegum...delicate carbonation and nice round slick mouthfeel...cherries, light apples and pears, again some bubble gum, nice earthy funk with some slightly grainy malt flavors...a nice strong sour wiping all the other flavors away...well done!

I first sampled this at the Bomb Factory Party and then multiple times throughout GABF 2008. Much to Ty’s (the brewmaster) chagrin at times, I easily drank more of this over the long weekend than anything else. The beer has a full gold color to it, is reasonably clear and is topped by a frothy, pale white colored head. The aroma has a fruity / tart note of grapefruit, lots of lactic character, plus some welcome harder acidic notes that lean toward acetic and help to boost more fruit aromatic notes. There is a touch of grassy malt towards the finish and there is a soft, lovely, funky, butyric acid stained, musty, musky, barnyard note that lies in the background of the nose and seems to just anchor the whole thing together.

The flavor is just so complex. The sourness actually coats the palate, but is not in anyway overwhelming (at least for this sour head). The acidity is definitely complex in character, it is dominated by lactic sourness, but it has such a nice, expressive acetic acidity to it that I really enjoy finding in my sour beers. There is a lingering, musky, farmhouse cheese note that sort of softly intrudes on the sour parade. This has quite a bit of fruitiness to it, that is really amplified by the complex sourness; flavors of sour apple, a touch of tart cherry notes and a richly fruity, balsamic type note each add some layered richness to this brew. Carbonated just enough to keep the beer light and textured, the beer is quite quaffable, but definitely has a light viscousness to it that helps to soften the effect of the acidity just a bit.

This is an incredibly fantastic beer, there was a reason I drank so much of this. I am really quite jealous that Austin has a brewery doing things like this (I wish a commercial AZ enterprise would start doing beers like this). I really like the acetic edge that is in this beer; I am finding that I like a more dominant lactic character to be offset by acetic acid notes, as it really boosts the complexity of a brew.

Draught at GABF 2008 (As Belgian Sour). Cloudy yellow - white head. High vinegar, balsamic, gooseberries, bike glue, light sweetness, tar, sourness, brett, pie, animals. I Love This.

Beautiful Flemish sour ale!! Hazy amber. I don’t even know to go into the typical range of sour and funk, fruit and fun. This is just a really beautiful FSA, with the right palate and flavor. Thanks Walt!

GABF 2007. A hazy pale golden beer with a white head. The aroma is sweet and very sour with notes of wood and brettanomyces. The flavor is very acidic with strong notes of wood and over ripe fruits, leading to a dry woody finish. A great Flemmish Sour, thanks Logan for pointing me in the direction of this beer.

Sample from 375 ml bottle (I think), RBSG Minneapolis Grand Tasting, June 23 2007. Fairly light amber, quite hazy/dirty with a nice bit of lasting white head....the nose is full of sour funkiness, tart cherries and a hint of strong sour lemons, a bit of charred wood....strongly sour in the body as well, juicy and tart throughout with a finish that just doesn’t quit....touches of bitter almonds add a nice flourish to the fine cherry/oaky/yeasty picture....strong carbonation, very full. Quite excellent; thanks Walt!