Red Belgian Ale
The Grey Parrot

Beer Geek Stats
From:
The Grey Parrot
 
Washington, United States
Style:
Wild Ale
ABV:
Not listed
Score:
Needs more ratings
Avg:
4.52 | pDev: 1.77%
Reviews:
2
Ratings:
2
Status:
Retired
Rated:
May 18, 2010
Added:
Oct 11, 2006
Wants:
  13
Gots:
  1
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Photo of brewandbbq
Reviewed by brewandbbq from New Hampshire

4.44/5  rDev -1.8%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
One pint swingtop bottle. Brewed 2/1/07, hand bottled 5/7/10 straight from the stainless drum out back.

Pours perfectly flat with a nearly opaque dark mahogany body with ruby tinges.

Aromatics lead off with balsamic-drizzeled cherries, soured fruit pits, tannic appleskins, sherry, and wet socks. Jowel watering from the nose alone. Hints of smoked seasalt, worstershire, and port follow through.

Medium bodied with a sharp mouthfeel. Puckering and slickish.

A balsamic reduction with sour cherries start the palate. Extremely vineous and wine-like. Port, rotted apples, sherry-soaked dried figs, and bright, clean acid follow through.

Finishes with lingering balsamic, dried cherries, and extremely tart.

What a beer. I don't like to compare one beer to another, but this one reminds me of the first Earthmonk I had. Extremely unique, sour, and fruity, with an intense depth of flavor. Some carbonation would be nice but it drinks like wine now.

Awesome.
May 18, 2010
Photo of RedDiamond
Reviewed by RedDiamond from Oregon

4.59/5  rDev +1.5%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 5
Forget the “Belgian” in this beer’s name or it’s occasional misrepresentation as a “Lambic.” This is a genuine American wild ale, one of only a handful of real wild ales I’m aware of in the entire United States. This is not a pseudo-wild ale brewed with commercially available brett- or lacto- cultures or similarly inoculated barrels. Those aren’t wild ales at all and frankly it bugs me that too many brewers play fast and easy with the nomenclature.

This is a real wild ale spontaneously fermented with local, native yeasts. The brewer racks from the brew kettle to the primary fermenter, a 55-gallon drum, without chilling the wort with a heat exchanger. Instead, it is allowed to gently cool to ambient temperatures, creating a vacuum inside the fermenter. When the wort reaches 70°F, the brewer cracks open a valve causing unfiltered coastal air to rush into the drum. After an hour or so the wort is infected, the valve is closed, and the magic begins.

The result is a piquant, sour beer with a tart, black cherry aroma. The sullen, semi-translucent body is bleary-eyed red trending towards brown. Wild yeasts define the flavor almost entirely creating a taste comparable to black cherry cola, but with a sharp, sour edge. No fruits or adjuncts are added.

This so-called “Red Belgian Ale” is a remarkable achievement. It uses only local, naturally occurring wild yeasts from the Long Beach peninsula, yet achieves a highly refined, Euro-influenced taste. Grey Parrot produces a number of similarly designed wild ales, a brown ale among them, others brewed with fruit. They are among the rarest and most distinguished beers in the state and shouldn’t be missed.
Oct 11, 2006
Red Belgian Ale from The Grey Parrot
Beer rating: 4.52 out of 5 with 2 ratings