Beer Review 78: Cantillon Fou Foune 2008

Cantillon Fou Foune.... what can one say other than a near perfect beer form one of the premiere brewery's in the world. Fou Foune is one of the best fruit lambic's produced anywhere, the combination of apricots and the sour and funk of the beer make this liquid treat a true pleasure to consume. This beer transforms throughout its life. Starting as a fruit forward lambic with light acidity and sourness, this beer than becomes more sour/funky as it ages and the fruit begins to take a back seat. Jean Van Roy is a true master in producing fruit lambic's, his work is only matched by a hand full of other brewers in the world. Drinking his beers are a total guilty pleasure. Moreover, Fou Foune is quite expensive to buy and find here in the states. Starting from $25.00 a bottle to anywhere below $35.00, this beer will def leave your wallet hurting, but once you taste this magnificent creation you'll want to spend to get it again. However, finding it can be quite tricky, especially if you live on the west coast like I do. Though this beer is made every year, not much makes it to the states and what does usually stays on the east coast. So how do you go about buying one or finding it.. well you can start buy finding it online and see how much it would cost to get it shipped to you (but trust me this option gets expensive). Or if you are an avid beer trader, find some one with multiple bottles of it and hope he is willing to give one up. Fou Foune comes in 750ml bottles and are the most common ones sold on the market, but they also bottle it in 375ml bottles, but finding these anywhere might be tough as the only ones I've seen have come from Japan. Like all Lambic's, the abv on Fou Foune is low, at 5% one can easily consume a bottle without help and quite quickly(its that good). I recommend enjoying this beer in a tulip or flute to fully enjoy the complexity of this beer, but if you want to be old school and have a vintage Belgian gueuze tumbler glass feel free to use that as well.

Color: A hazy, but yet bright golden/orange. White 1 1/2f finger head that reduces to a thin bubbly cap after awhile. No lacing with light retention

Nose: Apricots what else, but the fruit has definitely faded compared to the fresher batches. Nice funk aroma with hints of wood, hay, and light lemon peel.

Palate: Wow! simply amazing. A perfect amount of carbonation making this beer very drinkable. The apricots hit the tongue first followed the an enjoyable wave of sourness and funk. This beer is dry, but yet it contains a good amount of spritz. At the end you begin to taste the oak/woody textures of this beer.

Finish: Long and dry with a good amount of texture. Mellow fruit which balances the light acidity at the end. An incredible beer that can be consumed fresh and aged.

Rating 98/100
08 vintage score

Beer Review 77: Midnight Sun Bar Fly

I'm back with another beer review, and its another Midnight Sun Brewing offering. This time it's their smoked Cabernet barrel aged stout, Bar Fly. I can say in all honesty this may be my favorite barrel aged stout of all time. Bar Fly posses great texture, balance and its so drinkable that one alone can put down a 22 oz bottle without any help. One draw back about this beer, its very limited, and by that I mean it was brewed once and sold only in Alaska. Making it even more rare is the fact that less tan 2000 bottles were made 2010, so if you trying to track one down you might be looking for awhile or you will be paying some insulting type of money to purchase one. Furthermore, Bar Fly makes a great beer to cellar as well, so people who still have it, they wont be parting with it, making trading for it pretty hard.  If you do have a bottle of this make sure to enjoy it in 6oz pours and in the proper glassware. In the case of Bar Fly, a snifter or tulip glass will work best. Moreover, this incredible stout is bottled at a very smooth 12.60% abv. Usually a beer of this high alcohol content packs some heat when drinking it, but Bar Fly goes down smooth and clean. I'm fully blown away by this beer and I want to give the head brewer and other staff at Midnight Sun a big hug and high fives for not only coming up with this beer, but many other beers I truly enjoy. If your an avid craft beer drinker, do yourself a favor... get some Midnight Sun brew!

Color: Pours almost jet black. Hints of mocha shine around the edges of the glass. A nice tan one finger head forms in the glass, but it dissolves quite quickly.

Nose: Just superb! Light smoke, roast, and great oak presence. Hints of roasted coffee beans, mellow chocolate, with hints of tobacco. Quite complex.

Palate: Medium to full bodied. Extremely drinkable with the perfect amount  of carbonation. The abv is well masked throughout the beer. On the tongue you first get the smoke followed by waves of roasted coffee and tobacco. At the back end the vanilla and cab barrel presence begins to show.

Finish: Smooth and uber complex. Great texture and layers. An incredible stout that shines above all others out there.

Rating: 97/100