- Bottoms Up (RSS)Has anyone tried Deschutes, The Dissident? Loved it, want more
By William Brand
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 pm in Uncategorized.
In my weekly column today in the Oakland Tribune/Contra Costa Times I wrote about The Dissident, the Old Brown, Belgian Style sour from Deschutes, Bend, OR. Great beer, but unfortunately only a small batch was bottled and released and it’s sold out almost everywhere.
Two questions: Anybody know where it can still be found? What about American alternatives? Suggestions anyone? Comments welcome.
Here’s an outtake from the column:
Deschutes’ The Dissident **** is indeed a step back into time, and drinking this beer, I have a feeling it’s just the beginning. It’s an attempt by a team of American brewers in Bend, Ore. to recreate a style of sour brown ales that long were the staple of Belgian workers.
They’re not alone. American homebrewers and craft brewers are intensely interested in these beers.
Beers in the style of The Dissident called “Oud Bruin” were sour because of the way they were made.
Originally fermented with wild yeast in much-used wood barrels; the wood itself acquires bacteria – the harmless kind – which also works on the fermentables in the young beer. It’s a wild outcome. The beer can be intensely sour.
The Dissident, at the moment, is halfway to intensely sour. It was fermented for 18 months; wild yeast works slowly. Part of the beer was placed in Pinot and Cabernet wine barrels for more than three months, then blended back into the rest of the beer. Then, a year ago, Central Washington cherries were added.
The beer is 9.1 percent alcohol by volume. It’s a translucent brown. The taste is initially mildly sweet, but there’s a growing sourness with a faint background sweetness and perhaps a note of fruit
I loved The Dissident. It’s refreshing, interesting, unusual. A lot of people agree, including several panels of judges in blind tastings at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver two weeks ago. It won the gold medal in the Sour American Ale category.
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.]
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I had some at GABF and loved it. Tried to buy some at City Beer the other day but it was long gone.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I can’t wait to try it – I have one in my fridge just waiting to be opened. I got it a little while ago at Coit Liquor in North Beach, San Francisco. I’ll swing by there soon and see if they have any left.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Great beer. Have 3 aging as we speak. Can’t wait for that Brett to really kick in. It is available at the BevMos in Greenbrae and Novato in Marin County. If you go online to bevmo.com and use the BevMo Deschutes Seasonal sku# 84045, it will currently pop-up as the Abyss, but the inventory is really for the Dissident. (This sku# was also used for the Black Butte XX). BevMo never changes the sku for these special releases, but rest assured that right now, that sku is for the Dissident. I have also seen it recently at the Whole Foods in Mill Valley and San Rafael.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
they still have it at Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
There are a few bottles left at Ledgers as of Weds. evening.
October 29th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
~3.5 Cases available in Davis, CA at the Food Coop still.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:35 am
For sure at Coit Liquor… Was shocked it was there last night…
November 1st, 2008 at 9:55 am
We’ve got a ton of it up in Humboldt County still. I have a few bottles in the cellar. The exciting thing is I just found a 2007 bottle of The Abyss at a random gas station up here! While I was at it I scooped a bottle of the Black Butte XX, as they still have a decent stock. This place is my secret spot. Overpriced, but they always have old beers way after the release.
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 am
Wow Mr. Footstones…. does your secret store have 2007 Abyss and Firestone Walker 10 and 11 and….