Beer of the Week: Menagerie of Barrels

From the Beer Writer: When U.S.-produced sour ales were gaining popularity on a significant scale, it was a lot like when West Coast IPAs first came on. People wanted more, more, more! In the case of the IPAs, it was more bitterness; people begging for their beer to be completely out of balance. In the case of fruited blondes and Flemish reds, drinkers wanted more acidity. “This beer will strip the enamel off your teeth,” became a popular sentence among craft-beer fans. Surprisingly, for many of them, that was a good thing. As with most extreme trends in this liquid arena, eventually the public pendulum swung back to an appreciation for balance. While there’s something to be said for keeping pH in check, there’s also something to be said for creating a sour with an aggressive level of tartness that still has barrel character. This week’s featured beer, Menagerie of Barrels from San Marcos-based Wild Barrel Brewing, does just that. Barrel Director Preston Weesner hails from one of the country’s foremost sour houses, where the barrel-aged sour ales are bold, high-alcohol and sour. He brought his talents to Wild Barrel in 2017, and his years of experience show up in this oak-aged beauty. It’s fortified with two types of raspberries, but rather than come across as a fruit bomb, the berries’ inherent tartness melds with that of the bacteria-borne acidity to create a unique flavor experience. Meanwhile, the sugars from the fruit help strike some balance, drying the beer out a touch so its oaky essence comes through several seconds after each sip.

From the Brewer: “We recently released my newest barrel-aged sour, Menagerie of Barrels, a blend of blond beers aged in French and American oak barrels. A menagerie is a collection of wild things, and this blend features two that work well together. While I find my comfort zone with lactobacillus, I also have a healthy appreciation for Brettanomyces. I prefer to age them separately and then blend for the best showcase of the two. The addition of the red raspberries and Brett to the French oak that matured for three years has given the high fruit and rose-petal notes that you notice with the aroma and the first sip. Blending in the white raspberries and lacto aged in neutral American oak for three years brings the base fruit note that has a slight nutty almond-like character to the end palate and finish. This blend is 7% alcohol-by-volume and is a complex, thought-provoking beer that is likely to spark a conversation with friends. And when you glass is empty, you are not done; that is where the aromas of the oak shine through. I am already looking forward to the next releases, a blond beer aged on White Saturn donut peaches with lacto, a barrel-aged stout that tastes like a bourbon stout with cookies and ice cream, and a Cryo dry-hopped Brett and lacto blend that tastes like stone fruit and hops, even though no fruit was harmed in the making of the beer. As always, I’ll see you around the barrels.”—Preston Weesner, Barrel Director, Wild Barrel Brewing