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Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Pssst, Dissident's On Tap at the Brewery

The title really says it all. Well, I guess I could add the address....

Deschutes Brewery
210 NW 11th Avenue

Update. As DA Beers noted in comments below, the Dissident is available at the brewery in the Pearl. They have a limited number of bottles left--only a few dozen cases made it to the brewery, and someone came in today and bought a bunch of it. As you can see in the third picture below [whoops, forgot to put in the pics--I'll do it with the review--ed.], everyone was drinking it, too.

But you're wondering: is it worth going to the pub for? Is it worth $10 a bottle? I'll have a full review later on, but the short answer is this: it's one of the most authentic Belgian-style, American-brewed ales I've tried, and the only credible sour brown. In other words, run, don't walk.

6 comments:

  1. Yep, and they have bottles, about 30 cases worth, $10 a bottle.

    It was good, but not amazing, needs time to develop (bottles might be better).

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  2. Jeff, did you get to try Russian River Supplication when Belmont had it?

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  3. My sentiments exactly, da beers: I haven't tried The Dissident yet, but I found Supplication to be *quite* credible, enough so that it is difficult for me to believe that The Dissident is radically better.

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  4. I did indeed try Supplication. Review here. Key graf:

    I loved the beer, and it was very much an authentic Beligian. Host a sour beer tasting of only Belgian-brewed beers, and this one would never be exposed as an imposter. It's aggressive but rewarding and to my palate, delicious. If I were the brewery, I'd dispense with the crazy "brown" descriptor (it's about half Rodenbach Grand Cru and half Boon Kriek, and no Liefman's) and call it a red or something that won't indicate any precursor--"sour" ale or something like that. Otherwise, thumbs way up (an A-, if you forced a judgment from me).

    You see, I allowed myself a clever out: I elide criticism by both delighting in Supplication while rejecting it as a brown. Ta da!

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  5. Supplication is about half Rodenbach Grand Cru and half Boon Kriek? Psh… that's how I'd describe the Dissident; Supplication was all Cantillon Geuze.

    Having not sampled a lot of Flanders-style beers (Cascade's Flanders Red being the most prominent example in my memory banks, and I don't recall if the Walking Man Blootvoeste Bruin claimed to be a Flanders or just a brown - it was great either way; I guess Duchesse de Bourgogne qualifies as well, though I wouldn't put it in the same category flavor-wise), I can safely say that this is my favorite of the bunch, which is saying quite a bit because I like them all very much (the Duchesse not so much).

    It's definitely sour (much more so than the Duchesse and Cascade's, somewhat more than Walking Man's) but not overly lactic (Supplication all the way), for which my stomach was thankful. It also has a nice, mild sweetness in the background (which I think comes from the cherries) to balance it out (similar to Walking Man's "smooth" sour character - presumably from the Kombucha).

    However, I wouldn't necessarily call it a "brown" as their literature suggests… Walking Man's is definitely a brown - it looks like a porter, and tastes pretty similarly (nice strong roastiness - more than your average brown ale; best one I've had even without the sour), but the Dissident was lighter than that - looking and tasting more like the Cascade Red. My friend ordered their Hopicide IPA, and on first glance they appeared almost identical - a very dark amber, but the Dissident was ever-so-slightly darker.

    Another point of contention was over just how much ABV it is… one sheet said 9%, another said 11. I'm leaning toward the latter 'cause even after one snifter (at $5.50! Go $10 bottles!), I was pretty tipsy - but I still wanted more! Sadly, I had to drive. :(

    Get it while it lasts! They only got 4 kegs total (sorry, no growlers), so if you're at all curious, this would be the only way to try-before-you-buy, so to speak…or perhaps divest-before-you-invest? Yeah, that doesn't make sense…

    I give it 3 thumbs up…
    -anónimo

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  6. Yah, the Dissident was nice, but I didn't think the brett character had developed enough yet. I thought what supplication did well was get a lot of that funkiness from the brett, over time I think Dissident will pick more of this up.

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