Deschutes Brewery The Dissident (2015) – Sour Brown Ale (Flanders Oud Bruin) at 11.1% ABV (C$20.30 at Willow Park Wine & Spirits, 650 ml, no packaging date or best before, acquired 16-Mar-2016, reviewed 14-Jun-2020)
Appearance: clear medium amber with a short, short-lived loose off-white head, no lacing. (3/5) Aroma: cherries, balsamic vinegar, dried dark fruit, leather, oak, caramel. (8/10) Taste: moderate-high sweet, moderate tart, low bitter. (8/10) Palate: medium-full slightly slick body, moderate-lively carbonation, off-dry medium duration warming finish. (4/5)
The Great Cellar Drink Down continues. What? I’m in quarantine in a (supposedly) sold house, so I can’t get anything fresh, and who knows how long my collection will go into a storage unit after we pack up here and find/build a new house – could be months, easily, subjected to wild temperature variations. No, better it end here, with dignity: cue the swelling orchestra.
I decided to do a vertical, newest to oldest, of the three vintages I’ve been cellaring for a few years, this being the oldest. This one represents a slight but perceptible improvement over the newer ones, with a definite trend towards being smoother overall with ageing. It would probably have been hard to detect from memory or tasting notes, but side-by-side it’s clear that the additional ageing gives a definite improvement. Particularly on the tongue, the caramel sweetness continues to diminish, giving a more appropriate balance to the style, though to my disappointment I’m still not getting a lot of Brett. The high ABV is better integrated again, and has now become very smooth indeed. Somewhat surprisingly, it seems like the carbonation continues to climb with age, which I observed in the subsequent vintage but didn’t record in my notes (another benefit of side-by-side comparisons), and this one is fairly light and bubbly by comparison to the two year newer one. Five years in appears to be the sweet spot for this one, and I doubt further ageing will give a perceptible improvement – though I’m not the one to ask, because I’ve blown my load now, so it’ll take at least six years before I can re-address the issue. (Which, though I’m a middle-aged male, is not an issue that is addressable by a small blue trapezoidal pill – not that I have any experience in that regard, being as far as I can tell still eighteen in mind and body, at least as pertains to the old boom-chicka-wow-wow – except that I last a fuck of a lot longer now. So to speak.) (16/20)
8/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
