Tag Archives: red wine barrel aged

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Germany, Kemker Kultuur, Wild Ale

Kemker Aoltbeer Blend 2021-01 (Cherries and Sloeberries)

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Brewery: Kemker Kultuur
Country: Germany
ABV: 6%
Style: Wild Ale

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Aoltbeer is the historic beer of Münster. The beers in this blend matured on average for 10 months in red wine barrels. In this time the beer developed its fruity and wine-like character. For this small blend no. 01-2021 we have used cherries and sloeberries picked by ourselves, as well as black currants from local organic farmer Maria Plage.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.21
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 750ml bottle, with a best before date of 15th February 2031. Poured into a Tilquin stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy pinkish orange colour with a nice two finger white head that had good retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Tart, cherries, red berries, mixed berries, oak, with notes of green vines.
Taste: Tart, lightly sour, red berries, cherries, mixed berries, oak, lemon zest, with subtle red wine vinous notes.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: It might not seem too complex, but it’s light, with great flavours, and just really easy to drink.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Germany, Gruit, Kemker Kultuur

Kemker Winter

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Brewery: Kemker Kultuur
Country: Germany
ABV: 7%
Style: Gruit
Other Notes: Gruit Seasons

Brewer Description: (from bottle) This series of four herbal beers is dedicated to the seasons. Each beer stands for a particular season, so you can drink your way through the year. We used rosemary from our family garden, which lend the beer its herbaceous and woody aroma. This blend matured on average 10 month in red wine barrels.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.25
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 750ml bottle, with a best before date of 15th February 2024. Poured into a Tilquin stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy copper red colour with a nice one finger beige head that had good retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Vinous, grape skin, herbal, rosemary, pine, oak, citrus peel, and a touch spicy.
Taste: Tart, notes of sweet and sour, herbal, rosemary, red wine vinous, grape skin, red berry fruits, orange peel and oak.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: Not my first herbal beer, but I think this is my first Gruit, and it’s definitely given me a good first impression. Nice aroma and flavours with lots of herbs and fruitiness from the red wine barrels. Worth a try especially if you enjoy herbs.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, England, Mills Brewing, Wild Ale

Mills Chuckleberry

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Brewery: Mills Brewing
Country: England
ABV: 6%
Style: Wild Ale
Other Notes: Mills Brewing make beer with minimal modern intervention, relying on local wild yeast cultures and the influence of nature to ferment

Brewer Description: (from bottle) This beer is a blend of two brews produced in June and September 2019. They were made from a turbid wort, using rye malt and aged hops. Fermentation and maturation took place in red Bordeaux barrels. The resulting blend was added to a large quantity of locally grown chuckleberries to referment for five months. The beer then conditioned in bottle for a further three months before release.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.3
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 750ml corked and capped bottle, bottled in November 2021, with a best before date of November 2026. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A very nice reddish dark magenta colour with a two finger pinkish head that had decent retention while eventually settling to a ring around the glass and leaving some lacing.
Aroma: Tart, gooseberry, redcurrant, red wine grapes, funk, wood, and a splash of blackcurrant.
Taste: What you’d expect from the aroma, tart, light to moderate sour, gooseberry, redcurrant, funk, earthy, wood, and blackcurrant notes.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Balanced and easy drinking, and my first time trying something with chuckleberry in it.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, England, Mills Brewing x Nevel, Wild Ale

Mills x Nevel Dinkum

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Brewery: Mills Brewing x Nevel
Country: England
ABV: 5.5%
Style: Wild Ale
Other Notes: Mills Brewing make beer with minimal modern intervention, relying on local wild yeast cultures and the influence of nature to ferment. Nevel Artisan Ales brew wild beer in Nijmegen with local, organic and foraged ingredients

Brewer Description: (from bottle) In April 2019 we brewed a rich, copper wort with locally picked blackberry leaves in the boil. Both brewery’s mixed cultures were used to ferment the wort in red wine barrels for 12 months. The resulting beer was blended with another reddish beer from August 2018. The beer was then dry hopped with whole leaf Huell Melon, Belma, Cascade and Citra.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.49
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.4

Intro: A 750ml corked and capped bottle, bottled in April 2020, with a best before date of April 2030. Poured into a Tilquin stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy copper colour with a big three finger beige head that had good retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Lightly tart, grape, unripe berries, leafy, earthy, lemon zest, with notes of caramel.
Taste: Lightly sour, tart, grape, melon and berry notes, leafy, oak, citrusy, lemon zest.
Mouthfeel: Dry, medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Complex and balanced aroma and flavours just made it extremely easy drinking and enjoyable.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Trillium Brewing Company, USA, Wild Ale

Trillium Wild Sinister Kid – Double Sour Cherry & Malbec Grapes

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Brewery: Trillium Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 10%
Style: American Wild Ale
Other Notes: American Wild Ale aged in red wine and bourbon barrels. Hops – US Goldings. Malts – Pilsner, Abbey, Special B and Carafa III. Adjuncts – Sour Cherries, Malbec Grapes, Belgian Candi Syrup and Turbinado Sugar

Brewer Description: (from website) Sinister Kid is named after the unofficial mascot of our Congress Street brewery: a long-forgotten, dismembered doll unearthed in construction rubble. We dusted off Sinister Kid and breathed new life into her, installing a new pipe leg and a wire arm. We quickly found a new use for her evil appearance: keeping an ever-present, protective watch over the first floor of our Fort Point restaurant and brewery.

This year, we’ve crafted what we consider to be our most complex variations of Sinister Kid to date. We took the base Belgian Strong Ale recipe, fermented it with our native New England yeast culture for two years in both bourbon and wine barrels, then transferred the beer to our oak foeders to condition on a variety of fruit. The six resulting blends are intricate expressions of wild yeast, time, and fruit all coming together harmoniously in the bottle.

Three of the 2019 Wild Sinister Kid blends were conditioned upon twice the amount of fruit as their counterparts to achieve a truly elegant and fruit-forward final blend. Consisting of 50% bourbon barrel-aged beer and 50% wine barrel-aged beer, Wild Sinister Kid: Double Cherry Malbec pours a gorgeous ruby brown in the glass. Ripe with abundant red fruit aromas, layered notes of juicy cherry, fresh plum, and raspberry juice jump from the glass. Offering a moderate acidity balanced by a silky mouthfeel, we’re proud to share this luscious beer with you.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.24
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 330ml bottle, bottled on 15th August 2019. Poured into a Lindemans stemmed lambic teku/tulip glass.
Appearance: Maroon coloured with a one finger beige head that dissipated quickly to a ring around the glass, while leaving only sparse lacing.
Aroma: Tart, cherry, oak, vanilla, red wine grape.
Taste: Lightly sour, tart, cherry, oak, cinnamon, with notes of plum, and maybe bourbon.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Although I was disappointed that the bourbon and wine barrels weren’t obvious to me, the aroma and flavours worked and it was enjoyable.