Krystal is outta town, Ian is drinking beer

Ok,, so no posts in a while because Krystal is out of town..

Today I thought I would put up a post so that we don't lose ALL of our readership.. Lots of news around here, but today I am focusing on one particular thing that I did today that really made my brutal week worth it.

I cracked a fancy bottle of beer.

Alright.  I know what you're thinking..  So what? Beer?  I drink beer all the time!

Well sirs, this isn't any ordinary beer..  Brody -- you will have to excuse my example here, but we're not talking about Miller High Life or PBR.  This is a REAL beer.

You see....   A ways back when I was travelling to the US for business regularly, I developed a taste for sour beers.  At the time, it was a pretty unique thing -- but since, it's developed some popularity.  At the time I brought one single bottle home and shared it with friends.  I'm pretty sure nobody liked it and it was a huge waste of beer.  It was a New Belgium wild ale called "La Folie".  Here was the label at the time (it has since changed design):

Since then, I've been trying to find a similar beer..   It's very hard to describe this beer, but it's a sour cherry flavour, high acidity and makes my mouth water just thinking about it.  It's called "wild ale" because the yeasts and bacteria that develop the flavour are in the wood of the barrels.. They don't really control it the same way they control typical brewers yeast -- this makes the beer a little bit unpredictable and, as a result, more expensive.

Well, we, ahem, I, have been trying to find a similar beer for quite some time.. On our trip round the USA I tried a few, and just wasn't thrilled.  Didn't find anything I really liked as much.  Until today.

Today, I open a nice bottle of Weyerbacher Riserva 2011.  Sounds like a wine doesn't it?  well.. it's certainly priced like a wine at 19 bucks a bottle (473ml).

I'm pretty sure I bought this at a small hole in the wall bottle shop in Charleston South Carolina called the Charleston Beer Exchange where the staff helped me pick it out.  The company that makes the beer says:

Riserva is an American Wild Ale fermented on red raspberries.  Riserva is fermented with a blend of Saccharomyces yeast, Brettanomyces yeast, and lactic acid bacteria that produce funky, sour, and fruity flavors and aromas.  The beer is aged for more than a year in oak barrels with Raspberries, giving the beer a pungent raspberry aroma, a lovely red color and a balancing wood character.  This brew is a beautiful beer both to your eyes and to your taste buds.  The microflora responsible for giving Riserva its character reside in the wood barrels and change somewhat over time depending upon factors such as the age of the barrel and the ambient temperature at which the barrels are stored.  New barrels are rotated into the mix as old barrels are rotated out and as such, Riserva varies somewhat in color and tartness from year to year.  Riserva is much higher in alcohol than its Belgian lambic framboise cousins and is a true treat to experience.

I'll leave it at that.  Please don't disturb me while I drink this bottle and try and remember how it tastes forever.. Not sure I'll get to buy another bottle of beer that costs 19 USD ever again.

Amen.