Port City Brewing / Crux Fermentation Project - "Brett de Vinum" imperial witbier

As I mentioned in my last post about SAVOR, each attendee is given a gift bottle of a special collaboration beer made just for the event as a thank-you for attending. Last year the gift bottle was a Hardywood stout made with cocoa nibs, which was pretty good but nothing fantastic and not worth a separate post. This year's, however, was quite intriguing and definitely warrants further examination. Christine, who you may recall accompanied me to SAVOR, also has a bottle so I'll be incorporating her notes as well.

This beer is called "Brett de Vinum", and is an 8.00% ABV barrel-aged imperial witbier is made with Brettanomyces, and Viognier grapes. It's a collaboration between Alexandria, VA-based Port City Brewing Co. (which I reviewed several years back) and Crux Fermentation Project in Bend, OR.

You may have come across the word wit or witbier before, or perhaps have confused them with similar terms weiss and weizen. These three terms are all used to describe different kinds of beer and are not interchangeable. Weiss is the German word for "white" and usually refers to Bavarian-style white beers (including sour beers, like Berliner Weiss.) Wit also means "white", this time in Flemish, and describes Belgian wheat ales called witbiers. Finally, weizen means "wheat" in German, and references Bavarian-style wheat beers. Don't worry, there will be a quiz at the end of the post.

I am really excited. I am generally a fan of the white beer / wit / whatever, and I love Belgian yeast, so this has me jazzed. As noted, it's made with Brettanomyces, a strain of wild yeast commonly used in beer, so I also expect some funk flavors. The addition of Viognier (a white grape that makes fantastic wine) is also pretty neat, and I'm trying to think if I've had any other beers made with white wine grapes. Don't think so.

The 750mL bottle is quite handsome and is topped with a thick coating of red wax. Let's crack it open.

Not so fast, actually. This thing is sealed. There's got to be at least three layers of reinforced wax on there, and it took me a good five minutes to cut down to the bottle. In fact, I was even considering using my culinary torch to make the job easier. Once I finally chiseled off the wax, I pulled off the bottle cap underneath to reveal...a cork. Seriously?

OK, finally. Jeez. In Christine's words - "Holy Fort Knox."

The beer is a golden honey color, with some moderate white foam. It projects a strong aroma of funky, sour wood. There's also some moderate fizz to it, with lines of little bubbles rising to the top.

OK, wow, that Viognier comes through quite nicely and is quite noticeable immediately. It's sort of what you'd expect if you have white wine - some dryness, crisp pear / apple tastes, with a strong oak flavor.

As the flavor develops a bit, one can definitely pick up on the witbier flavorings, as well, but initially, they take a back seat to the one-two punch of oaky wood and dry white wine notes. The Brett, despite being the "headline" item (since the beer is named after it) doesn't make an appearance until late, after I've swallowed the beer. I can detect a bit of yeasty funk especially after exhaling. The finish is mostly of dry white wine.

The beer itself is very refreshing, with a medium body to it, as expected. A good balance is struck between pronounced flavors (white wine, some yeasty funk, and clean witbier flavor) and body. Sometimes it's easy to overdo the sour in a beer, so I'm glad to see that's not the case here. Christine echoes some of these notes, although concludes it was a "nice beer but not worth the triple protection system to get inside." I tend to agree, while it was quite tasty, I was perhaps expecting something a bit more...unusual, given the amount of work needed to get into it. Still - it's not a bad beer! Tasty, refreshing, and great for those who enjoy white wine.