Disenchantment Blend No. 3
Disenchantment Blend No. 3 - 7.3% ABV
Bond Brothers Beer Co. (Cary, North Carolina)
Flanders-Style Black Sour Ale
Oh hey! After a little over a month, I'm back. Over the last few weeks, I've let myself get away from my in-depth blog posts and moved toward a lot of quick posts on Instagram (@girlmeetsbeerbhm, if you want to give me a follow), but I'm hoping to move back toward a balance between the two media.
In other life things, we are about to release Episode 12 of No Rhyme or Refill, the poetry and beer podcast I co-host. You can subscribe to us anywhere, but here are the links for Spotify, iTunes and our Facebook page. I also just started my Master's in Public Administration program! For anyone curious, it's essentially an MBA for public organizations such as nonprofits or government — more people focus, less finance focus. I'll be in the program for two years (hopefully), and I'm going to write my thesis on *drumroll please* — CRAFT BEER! That's all to say that moving forward, I'll keep the semi-regular blog posts coming, but I might start to post a little bit about the thesis process and some of the cool stuff I find out through my research.
But anyway, most of you are not my family and probably didn't care to read all of that, so now, we shall move onto the beer.
Disenchantment Blend No. 3 came out of a three bottle gift pack that my mom picked up while in Cary, North Carolina. I previously wrote about another one of the beers, Duality of Funk, here. We also discussed a second one of the beers, Flavor Patterns, on the podcast, here. Those two beers packed a good bit of funk to them, and this flanders-style black sour ale is no different.
Disenchantment pours a dark brown with very little head, and it's surprisingly clear yet opaque. There's no haziness to it, but the deep color means you can't see shit through it. The nose reminds me of a tart blackberry — slightly earthy, sweet and a little sour. It reminds me of my first sniff of Duchesse De Bourgogne, and the taste is slightly similar as well. My husband said it reminded him of grape juice and soy sauce, and while I didn't get that myself, I can really see where he's coming from.
On first sip, this beer packs a tart punch. It's not an overwhelming flavor, but it'll make you pucker up a bit, and you get a tightness on the back of your tongue. Once you're past the initial tartness, you can break out a beautiful cherry flavor that makes me think "I want to soak cherries in this and then drop a few in an old fashioned." The beer is also super dry, so you don't get a lot of sweetness from the cherries.
I took a large gulp and let the beer sit on my tongue for a little bit, and it passed along a really interesting oaky flavor. It hit me somewhere between smokey and earthy, but at the same time had a distinctive "wood" quality to the flavor. On smaller sips, that same oak quality balances with the vinegary acidity and the deep cherry flavor to give this beer levels that I think a wine snob would really appreciate.
If you pick up this beer, or another sour ale that sounds similar, I would recommend taking it in smaller sips that can wash over your tongue. It helps spread out those tart notes and lets you really taste the beer, rather than just puckering up.
Flanders-Style beers and sour ales are beers I enjoy and like to nerd out over, but they're not an everyday beer for me. I have to want to really focus on the flavor and look for a challenge, which is fun, but not always what I'm in the mood for. The benefit, though, is they can sit around for longer than an IPA can. So if you're ever curious about the style, pick one up and let it chill until you're ready for a crazy flavor experience.
Overall rating: 3.5/5