Tart Ten

The aroma of this brew is quite fruity with a considerable amount of cherry and berry character, along with a light barnyard funk and aromatic sourness. The base dubbel makes itself known with an evident brown malt and light raisin aroma. Visually, this somewhat lightly carbonated, quite clear, amber-colored brew has a somewhat thin, off-white head that dissipates rather quickly.

The dominant character of the flavor is the base beer, which is a rather sweet dubbel with not a lot of dark malt richness. Alcohol is well hidden for a 10 percent ABV brew, but there is slight warming. There is not a great depth of complexity in the Brett character either, demonstrating a light to moderate level of cherry aromatics along with an unexpectedly low level of tartness. The body is a solid medium to medium-full. The dominant character in the middle and finish is the sweet maltiness of the Dubbel, with the flavors arising from the Brett being moderated by the sweetness to give an almost sweet-tart maraschino cherry flavor to the brew. The finish maintains the sweetness, with the residual sourness helping to partially clean up the palate.

Overall, this brew seems quite young and rough. The Brett fermentation seems a bit attenuated, with little of the expected rich barnyard flavor notes being exhibited in this brew. Perhaps cellaring will help, but this appears to have been a sterile fill without any sediment in the bottle. It would be worth trying it again in a year or so to see how the flavors develop and marry together.