Beer – #1101 – Craftwork – Porca Miseria!

Craftwork Porca Miseria! – a beer that started with the intention of being a Dubbel, but the barrelling process accidentally made this more like a Flanders Red.

This is a one off brew for the Craftwork 2021 Membership group, so you can’t buy this version. I include it here as 1,101 because I can.

Craftwork of course make the Craftwork Porca Miseria! in Oamaru, Otago, 🇳🇿  New Zealand. It is in the style that is a. Sour Flemish Ale – Flanders Red / Oud Bruin  with an ABV of  11.2%. This 500ml bottle is 4.2 standard drinks in NZ

An oude bruin aged in plum wine barrels and finished on angelino plums.

Oude bruin is a style of beer from Flemish Belgium with a gentle malty flavour and a characteristic sourness.

Porca Miseria’s tart flavour includes spices, vanilla, and dried fruit.

So, What could possibly go wrong? The notes say that this is a lively beer, so I’m going to be really super ready with a towel and a big glass, because if it can go wrong it will go wrong.

I was lively, there was a little pause and then it started to foam out, so I missed out on a nose full of foam and aroma as I do quite like to take an instant impression from an opened bottle. Such travail.

In the glass though, a lovely looking deep red beer, with a lot of carbonation but no real head, which I expected. The aroma is lovely fruity sour.

Some observations. It is quite tart and made with squint a bit. There’s a deep dry woody note at the finish. It has a lot of plum flavour, which I’m hoping will fill out and bloom as this gets up to a temperature from the chilled state I had it in to keep that effervescence in check.

As it warmed that sharp sourness left and was replaced with a a much lighter sourness that wasn’t quite enough, if that makes sense, but the favour from the plums got better and richer, and this I thought was both nice and also made that expected sourness less. So I would have like more of a familiar sourness.

Then of course you remember that this was an accidental beer, but it’s impossible to call back to the intention of Dubbel in this, there’s no hint at all of the yeastiness or sweetness that could be here.

It isn’t a big loss as this stands on it’s won very nicely thank you.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 of its things from the thing. Closer to a 9 than an 8 and I’m a whole numbers kind of guy. I’m pretty sure that dialling up the ABV on this has made this slightly less, and I know it won the hearts at a festival with a lower ABV, I’ll bet that that the typical Flanders red sour was there in spades.

The double dip review

• Where did I get it? The Craftwork Societe – a membership only beer
• Am I enjoying it? Yes I am, it is lovely.
• Would I have another? Well that’s moot, since this was a one off nano brew special beer
• Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? This is of course a beer that would deserve a share and a yarn, about many things, including the ABV variation between the festival version and this one.

Music for this:  The Northern Soul Story Volume 1

Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the English Midlands in the late 1960s from the British mod scene, based on a particular style of black American soul music, especially from the mid-1960s, with a heavy beat and fast tempo (100 bpm and above) or American soul music from northern cities such as Detroit, Chicago and others.

Sour Flemish Ale – Flanders Red / Oud Bruin

The Flanders Red Ale, also known as Flemish Red Ale and Belgian Sour Red Ale, is deep red/burgundy to reddish-brown colored, sour, fruity, red wine-like Belgian-style ale with interesting supportive malt flavors and fruit complexity. The dry finish and tannin makes it more wine-like than any other beer style. Similarly, the Oud Bruin, also know as Belgian Sour Brown Ale is a dark reddish-brown to brown, malty, fruity, aged, subtle-sour Belgian-style brown ale. A deeper malt character distinguishes the Oud Bruin from Flemish Red ale. The Oud Bruin is less acetic and maltier than a Flemish Red, and the fruity flavors are more malt-oriented while the Flemish Red have more of a fruity-tart profile.