Beer – #860 – North End – Oud Bruin
North End – Oud Bruin. BeerClub beer of the week, the days roll round quickly. Flanders Brown. A beer style I’ve only had a couple of times and I recall really enjoying. Sour beer done proper.
produced by using yogurt microbes and the addition of dried cherries and prunes
This is a can of 440ml beer that’s 7% ABV, 24 IBU and 210 calories a serve size, that would be 2.43 standard drink units.
Brewed by North End Brewing Co this on in the style that is Sour Red/Brown and that’s all the go in Waikanae Beach, New Zealand
Salt and Wood series.
Old used to be brown hair
In the East of Flanders there exists a tradition of making brown ales aged in stainless steel tanks until they take on a level of refreshing acidity and a delicious subtle fruitiness.
Sometimes they then combine these sour brown ales with beef to make the famous dish flamande carbonnade.
We brew our interpretation with a fruity Belgian yeast strain, rich malts, dried cherries, prunes and the addition of a yoghurt culture.
Rich yet tart, malty yet fruity, a perfect addition to a hearty dinner table.
So, What could possibly go wrong?
Can is a little over full and the rip top then spills drops everywhere, I’ve opened a lot of cans before, and now I’m complaining about too much beer, what have I become!
I though it was very yeasty on opening.
In the glass, a muddy red brown the aroma it settles towards a more bubble gum faint as it is aroma.
Nothing by way of head and it is low on carbonation.
It is a sour beer, again light and delicate, and that aroma, although faint is present on the nose at the tip.
It was then at this point that I’d skipped ahead to do the wrap up and realised that I’d drunk the whole thing without it bearing a sentence or two. I don’t know that’s a good or bad thing.
It means it wasn’t exciting or engaging, and that whilst it was ok on the whole, but it wasn’t engaging or as rewarding as it might be and it’s a beer that I had hit expectations
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 6 of its things from the thing. I know right, a 6!, which really is Above average on the pdubyah-o-meter and it’ arbitrary thing. A number I don’t use often but probably should. I don’t think this has enough bubbles, I think there is too much bubble gum aroma, but I think the level of sourness is spot on. Add more bubbles and I’d probably rave and go on a bit.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? BeerClub beer, but I’ve seen it in good places.
- Am I enjoying it? I must have I finished it pretty smartly
- Would I have another? I don’t think I will, but I’m keen to go again on others in the style
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? I might because it is a style that should be enjoyed an original sour and not one of the bandwagon ones.
Music for this: “ The Laurels ” and ” Sonicoloogy ” on Spotify
The Laurels are a neo-psychedelic four-piece based in Lewisham, a suburb in Sydney’s Inner West. Not the Lewisham in London which is a place dear to me.
SOUR ALE/WILD ALE
Sour ale is a broad spectrum of wild ales, from the fruity and acetic Flanders Red Ales and Oud Bruins, to the experimental ales gaining popularity in the United States which use lactobacillus, brettanomyces and pediococcus in new and wild ways.
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A life just as ordinary 