Review: Upland Sour Wild Funk Fest

So I couldn't make it to the this summer's Upland Sour Fest, but thankfully a good friend of mine could. Katie Gilmore is a local beer enthusiast and home brewer for the Evanston Avenue Brewery with her husband. 

My husband and I recently went to the first Upland Sour Wild Funk Fest at Developer Town in SoBro. We live nearby, so we rode our bikes to the event. This turned out to be a wise move since there was plenty of beer to go around.

The premise of the event was to offer samples of sour beers along with food pairings. The idea of food pairings drew me to this event, since previously, I preferred my sours as part of a 3 ounce tasting flight at Twenty Tap. I liked to sample the different varieties, but sours didn’t strike me as something to sip on while catching up with friends.

Upland’s executive chef, Seth Elgar, put together the food pairings for the Sour Fest. The event was set up so that the program listed the sours available for tasting, and next to each sour, it listed the suggested food pairing. This was very helpful as we made our way through the event.

The food was set up buffet style (with a hilarious sign that read, “This isn’t Golden Corral”). It was easy to grab a little bit of each item to try with the beers as we visited each tasting booth. I waited about an hour to get any food because the room was very warm. But after we had a few samples, it was time to eat.

As for the pairings, I think the heat had a lot to do with my interpretation of whether or not I liked a pairing. (This is obvious when you see that I basically liked the fruit pairings and not the meat or heavy cheese, which I typically enjoy.) For example, the Petrus Dubbel Bruin with capocolla seemed too heavy for me to appreciate. But the Bell’s Oarsman with cantaloupe was excellent. Since we’re headed into summer, it’s probably just as well that I know what works for me in the heat. Some of my favorite pairings were:

• ·       Bell’s Oarsman with cantaloupe (contrast)
• ·       Goose Island Juliet with brie (complement)
• ·       Goose Island Lolita with honeydew (contrast)
• ·       Barley Island Old Helen II with mini chocolate cheesecake (body)
• ·       Upland Blackberry Lambic with blackberries (complement)
• ·       New Belgium La Folie with white grapes (complement)

Not to detract from the other great beers that I sampled, here’s a list of the other sours I enjoyed as a stand-alone:

• ·       Sun King Sour Princess
• ·       Brugge Pooka
• ·       New Belgium Biere de Mars
• ·       Mad Anthony Ruby Raspberry Tart
• ·       Upland Gilgamesh Imperial Flanders-Style Red Ale

I would recommend this event to anyone who, like me, has appreciated a small serving of a sour here and there, but maybe hasn’t had the chance to really get to know all of the varieties that are available. I also appreciated the way that Upland approached this event. Tickets were limited, and they did a good job on the logistics of the space relative to the crowd size. We were at the event from 2 p.m. until 5-ish, and I don’t think we waited more than 2-3 minutes for a tasting at any of the booths.

I hope you’ve found this to be helpful!

Upland Brewing Co. - Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh Flanders Red Ale

ABV: 10.5
IBU: 21
SRM / coloring: bright red almost to orange

Beer is a funny thing.  Initially after trying it for the first time, most people think to themselves why would anyone consistently drink this stuff?  Then, as time progresses and you're around beer more often, you get used to it and it grows on you.  The grainy flavor and different variations become intriguing and you have to explore more options and different styles.  I'm the perfect example for this, starting off hating beer to now being in love with it I'm on a personal quest to explore every nook and cranny of the beer world and to find something truly unique and out there.  Ladies and gentlemen, it comes in a champagne like bottle from Upland Brewing Company.

Disclaimer, most people would be very opposed to this beer and to be honest, I'm not quite sure if I like it yet either.  The flavor of beer comes as an acquired taste, and to then find a beer that is so far from tasting like beer that it borders on something else entirely is a little bit shocking.  Still, sometimes you just have to roll the dice and try something crazy.

A little background first, flanders style red ales are sour beers, which do in fact taste sour.  In order to make a sour beer the brewers allow in bacteria and other yeast strands into the brew which alters the flavor, something that traditional (or should I say typical) brewers tend to avoid.  By doing so the beer comes off with a yeasty kick and does truly taste unique.  Other ways to achieve this is to add fruits into the mix to add another fermentation cycle.  As a result you get a sweet, yeasty flavored taste that borders more on sparkling grape juice or alcoholic cider than your average beer.

This is a medium bodied beer that looks like an amber, smells like a strawberry daiquiri, and tastes like a yeasty variation of the fruitiest beer that you've probably ever heard of.  Even just smelling this beer you get an overwhelming kick of fruit and yeast, but then take a drink and it seriously attacks your senses.  It has been bourbon barrel aged which kind of mellows out the flavor at the end, bringing it down a notch, but this is a super sweet beer bordering on too sweet.

Personally, I'm a dark beer malty man and I like to stay away from fruit flavored variations, so this ain't exactly my thing.  I do know one thing though, that this is one of the strongest beers I've ever had, in taste, alcohol, and just overall feel.  Too many of these and your head will probably explode the next morning.

Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co. - Wise Ass White IPA

Wise Ass White IPA

ABV: 8.0%
IBU: 93
SRM / Coloring: Cloudy Gold

I gotta say Thr3e Wise Men has been impressing me lately.  To be perfectly frank they don't have the same focus on beer that most other breweries in town have, offering on average of five beers, one seasonal and four standards, all year round.  While most other breweries would have upwards to ten beers on tap, Thr3e Wise Men Keeps it simple.  Recently though, they've been stepping up their game in a big way and pumping out some different variations on their beer, including this one.

Scotty Wise is known for naming all his beers after his experiences: Golden Zoe is named after his golden retriever, Two Lucy's after his daughter and wife.  Wise Ass makes complete sense in that regard, and the best way to describe this white IPA is as a cross between a more moderate IPA and a wheat beer.

Looking at this one you'd even guess it's a wheat beer, but the nice thing is it has a light hoppiness on the back end, complimented with the sweet wheat flavor.  There's a hint of orange and fruit on the nose, but the taste is light and crisp which doesn't overpower one way or another.  This is a great springtime beer to welcome in the warming of the weather (or in our case the cooling of the weather off again to most likely warm back up to a snotty rain which will then freeze over and make my morning commute a real turd).  Not a beer to push the maximum boundaries of taste and flavor, but ideal for people on the fence with regards to IPA's or Wheat beer.

Bier Brewery - PDG Pale Ale

PDG Pale Ale

ABV: 5.8%
IBU: 45.2
SRM / Coloring: 7.6 light and crisp

Just by association this beer is now top of my list.  Maybe it's because of the crisp hoppy taste, or maybe because it almost flew out of my hands as I was watching the Hoosiers nail a last second, buzzer beating three to knock off the top seeded Wildcats.  At any rate, this is a fantastic beer.

Most pale ale's people associate with your run of the mill beers, thus they often get overlooked.  So far as a brewery goes, pale ales are clean, a little bit fruity, and crisp which is great for the typical ber drinker, but going to a brewery most people want the crazy stuff.  Hell, I'm totally guilty of this fact.  I walk in to the breweries around here and want something full bodied and flavorful, and I don't really think of pale ale's in that instance.  However, when I visited Bier Brewery this past Saturday, I ran into a former coworker who spoke highly of Bier's PDG, so I decided to give it a go.  Without a doubt unlike any other pale ale I've ever tried.

The PDG Pale Ale is unique in that it almost transcends most beer categories.  It's a pale ale with the characteristic grainy and bitter flavoring, but it also has a hoppy aroma and taste like an IPA, which then comes off a little citrusy at the end like a blonde.  I knew in my head that I was drinking a pale ale, but my tongue was all like, "Whoa, pump the brakes what just happened."  Proof that complex beers aren't in the style of ber, but in the creativity of the people making them.  Well done.

Broad Ripple Brew Pub - Bigger Boy's Beer

Bigger Boy's Beer

ABV: 8.4%
IBU: Up there, gotta be over 100
SRM / Coloring: red to amber

This is identified as a bigger boy's beer.  Let's go ahead and identify a little boy's characteristics.

First off, a little boy would be identified as a beer nubile, i.e. someone who has yet to embrace the tender loving touch from beer's philanthropic heart.  They go up to the bar and ask, "What are your specials," stop the bartender in mid sentence and ask for the low calorie vodka soda...extra limes.

In most circumstances, hard cider or wine would be the best option, sadly even when those circumstances are tailgating parties and beer pong tournaments; sad I know.  When and if they do choose beer, it's something with light in front of it and out of a can.  Sarah McLachlan should be sponsoring these poor souls instead of ratty alley cats, there are people in the world who could use pennies on the dollar to open their eyes to the tre world of Adult beverages.

If you're going to put on the man't pants and try a big boy beer, you might want to look elsewhere because this truly is a manly man's intense hoppy beer.  Created and named for the birth of their brewmaster's baby boy, The Bigger Boy's Beer's intense smell is rivaled only by it's intense flavor and alcohol content.  Originally brewed to be an intense ale with highlights of toffee (which is very prevalent on the nose), the mad scientists at the BrewPub dry hopped this sucker to the max, transforming it into a Double IPA Frankenstein that would scare off any non-beer lover.  Though it may be intimidating, this monster has got some dance moves and would surely woo the majority of hop heads.

Brugge Brasserie - Very Bad Kitty

Very Bad Kitty

ABV: 10%
IBU: as low as it can be, very sweet
SRM / Coloring: golden, yellow


This one's going to be short.  Very Bad Kitty is an American Wild Ale, which means it was brewed using a lot of yeast giving it a complex and distinctive flavor, much like an abbey style ale.  While most other beers will have a dry or subtle bitterness to them, Very Bad Kitty is a pop to the face with sweet, sour, and that yeasty tang characteristic to this style.  Smelling it, you get a big hit of fruit like apples, lemons, and apricots; take a sip though and it tastes like liquified sweet tarts.  You get a slap of sugary sweetness like a slushie suicide that comes off just a bit tart and sour.  They limit you to only having two of these, which they say is due to the high alcohol content, but I think it's to save you from the massive hangover you're likely to get the next morning.

Upland Brewery - Helios Pale Ale

Helios Pale Ale

ABV: 4.9%

IBU: 21.7

SRM / Coloring: 6.2, light gold as you can see

It's Thanksgiving Weekend, my sister is back in town and my parents are looking to spend some time together. My first thought, let's go have a few drinks and really unbutton the collar a little bit, eh? Ol pops totally agrees and we head out to grab some cocktails, but I'm thinking about getting some good beer in the process, so I grab the reins and navigate the family mini van over to the Upland Tasting Room to see whats going on.

It's starting to cool off a little outside, naturally being November in Indiana, but any of you who live in them Midwest or more specifically Indiana will know that the weather here has a better turn radius than my car; this weekend alone has gone from mid 30's and rainy to mid 60's a gorgeous. Typically I'd go for a darker beer to warm me up on the inside, something spicy and full bodied, but I was feeling a bit saucy and wanted to go for a lighter drink, refreshing and all, so I bit on the Helios Pale Ale.

When I think of lagers and pale ale's I typically think of your standard American beers, Budweiser, Coors and the like, clean tasting but with a heavy emphasis on the grains in the beer. The Helios is quite a different story. Though your typical grainy, hoppy flavors are still present, it is nicely complimented but a citrus aroma and flavor giving it an extra edge / leg up over those other run of the mill variations. Perfect for a hot day or a thirst quencher, and for those trying to find something beyond the king / banquet / triple hops brewed. This beer is served year round, so need to sprint out your door, but a great place to grab it in a growler, especially with Upland's unique carbonating growler filling machines. Tubular.

Thr3e Wise Men - Longfang Abbey Ale

Longfang Abbey Ale

ABV: 7.5%

IBU: 36

SRM / Color: Deep amber

Thr3e Wise Men's seasonal beer, tapped on Oct. 17th, is the Longfang Abbey Ale, a classical Belgian style beer focusing more on the yeast and the malts in the beer than the hops. It's a simpler beer with only 3 different types of hops mixed together, though dominated by northern brewer and cascade hops. The beer has a clovey, flowery smell on the nose hinting to the yeast used in the process, providing for a more estery flavor.

The tapping party was pretty downplayed, but still exactly what I wanted; free food, a glass of free beer, and classic rock...what more could you want on a tuesday night? Omar, Thr3e Wise Men's Brewmaster, stood up and gave a brief description of the beer, and then offered a toast to the crowd, in which the mass gave an emphatic, "here here."

The taste is very similar to Hoegaarden or Thr3e Wise Men's Amber, clovey / flowery on the nose and tangy, light and crisp, but it differs in that its somewhat thicker / darker and has a fuller body. It's a nice addition to the cast of beers, but due to demand, will undoubtedly be gone soon.

Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co.

1021 Broad Ripple Ave.

www.thr3ewisemen.com

Bier Brewery - Cream Ale

Cream Ale
ABV: 5.8%
IBU: 17
SRM: 3

Cream Ale

Bier Brewery certainly has a variety of options for an ale guy like myself, so for my first review I went with the Cream Ale.  The bartenders were certainly willing to give RT and I a try of anything we wanted, and gave advice to help us find what we were looking for.  I tend to go for an ultra-hoppy beer, but today I was in the mood for something less bitter than the typical hoppy IPA, or whatever.  Cream Ale certainly lives up to the reputation for the stereotypical cream ale with repressed flavors of malt and hops.  As I near the end of my first glass, I can certainly say this beer has a light and refreshing personality.

The beer has a very smooth flow, as characteristic of cream ales.  Because flavors of malt and hops are generally hidden in this beer, it yields slightly sweet flavor somewhere between a wheat ale and a light pale ale.  It's definitely not too heavy, so if you're the person to drink one beer, then another... and another... and another... and another... this would be a good bet.  To the beer drinker without the tongue for a super-hoppy beer, this would be the ale for you.

Bier Brewery

5133 East 65th Street, Indianapolis

www.bierbrewery.com