Volume 16 Issue 8

Yazoo Company Nashville, Tennessee

Monteur de Houblon (RBC Exclusive)

Yazoo Brewing Co.’s founder and established strong local support for their Of particular note: Yazoo started up their brewmaster, Linus Hall, got his brewing draft , and their Hefeweizen entered Embrace The Funk series in mid-2012, start in a familiar fashion, purchasing a regular rotation after picking up a gold bringing in local writer and wild-beer homebrewing kit from an ad in the back medal at the Great American Beer Festival specialist, Brandon Jones, who runs a pages of Rolling Stone back in 1993. in 2004, just a year after Yazoo opened. popular website by the same name (check Linus was, as he phrased it, “a cash-poor it out at www.embracethefunk.com). The college student living in an old farmhouse Bottling began in 2005, though much of their program—from which this month’s Rare in Virginia, and production (and Beer Club exclusive offering was born!— brewing my own particularly, some allows Brandon to focus on (no surprise) beer seemed a little of the low-volume wild , funky bacteria, and a whole less illegal than special releases range of barrel treatments. Some highlights the pot-growing in their Embrace there include, just to give a little sense of operation my The Funk lineup) what’s ahead: their Citraluxe, a French-style other housemates remain keg-only. Biere de Garde using Citra and Galaxy were involved in.” 2009 saw their and a range of souring elements; and Spilled We’re typing this release of Yazoo Vines, a blend with three different wine- from California; Sue, “Tennessee’s barrel-aged at its core, employing we get where he’s first ever legal Port and Cynthiana red-wine barrels, a bit coming from. His high-gravity ,” a of blackberries and Merlot grapes, Belgian homebrewing delicious 9.2% ABV Candi sugar, and lord knows what else. habit continued beer emphasizing (Continued on reverse page) after moving with his wife Lila back to cherrywood-smoked . (The above Mississippi following college, and when the should also give a sense of some of the SPECIFICATIONS couple relocated to Nashville in 1996. additional hurdles along the way, as it required them to get a distillery license.) In Style Fast-forward a bit, and Yazoo Brewing Co. only six years Yazoo outgrew its initial home Barrel-Aged Dry-Hopped opened up in Nashville in October of 2003, base, and 2010 brought the purchase of a with a keg-only lineup of staple beers like new brewing facility (including a 40-barrel 6.7% Yazoo , Spring Wheat, Dos Perros brewhouse) in The Gulch, a historic Serving Temperature 45–52° F (a Mexican-style beer, featuring Perle and neighborhood in Nashville between Music Suggested Glassware Saaz hops) and Onward . They quickly Row and downtown. Tulip, Teku or Chardonnay Glass These were both draft-only, with Spilled ’s foudre-aged sour blonde blended oak and almond and a touch of light tannins, Vines being offered as a Yazoo taproom in (around 20% of the total). It’s dry-hopped while a core saison framework of white exclusive—which hopefully gives a sense with Citra, Mosaic and Amarillo, and even pepper and sourdough add more layers to of how lucky we were to get one of these employs some tangerine peel. The final what’s often kind of -like in overall beers bottled for the Club! result is a complex, deftly composed barrel- expression. This is brilliantly complex, aged saison that’s dry, zippy and bright—a refreshing and lean, with tons of tree fruit This month, we’re thrilled to offer up perfect beer for summer. and peppery saison notes and subtle barrel- Yazoo’s Monteur de Houblon as a Rare aging taking things to the next level. Beer Club exclusive offering. Brandon’s put This is well-hazed saison, with a strong together a really magnificent beer for us: depth of color and very finely bubbled There’s just a ton of things to dig into with a special barrel-aged, dry-hopped version foam. Creamy off-white bubbles, strongly Monteur de Houblon. Allowing this to of their saison, featuring Citra, Mosaic and retained with exceptional lacing when you warm up yields further layers of fruit: tart Amarillo hops. This is the first time this give the glass a tilt. A huge impact of tart tangerine, grapefruit pith, and some version has ever been released—and it’s saison in the aromatics, providing intense subtle grassiness and herbal character from only available through The Rare Beer Club. grapefruit and candied lemon, lots of crisp that dry-hopping. The Citra and Mosaic fit in We love how this BA saison turned out, and lime and other tree fruit, along with dense seamlessly with the citrus-focused acidity, we expect you’re going to dig it. herbaceous character and underlying providing additional notes of grapefruit and touches of oak. (The barrel character is tart passion fruit and mango elements that If you’re in the Nashville area, be sure to soft, nicely integrated, and provides some take that tart citrus into the stratosphere. swing by Yazoo’s brand-new location— welcome secondary structure throughout We’re super thrilled to be able to offer this which they just opened up about a month or this beer.) There’s mouthwatering lambic- saison as an exclusive release to our Rare two ago. Having outgrown their downtown like funk present: subtle and salty and highly Beer Club members, and we hope you love Nashville spot, they recently built their refreshing. Overall, first impressions of this this beer as much as we do. Definitely one own facility in Madison, Tennessee, about saison are that of an especially serious tart worth sharing with your favorite people. 15 minutes away, on a 7-acre plot nestled beer, with overlays of vibrant, herbaceous, along on the Cumberland River. The new subtly tropical hops. Aging & Pairing Notes: site’s got way more parking, great views from the patio, and a new canning line in We absolutely love barrel-aged here Brandon from Yazoo subscribes to the the works. Learn more at yazoobrew.com. at The Rare Beer Club, and Yazoo’s Monteur ‘drink one, save one’ philosophy, and given de Houblon is one of the tastiest we’ve the dry-hopping here, we would encourage Monteur de Houblon been lucky enough to sample. Yazoo’s sours folks to enjoy a bottle of this one as fresh as have long been a favorite of our tasting possible to get the most out of that aspect. One of our featured beers this month is panels, and longstanding RBC members That said… a year or so in the cellar will take an exclusive release from Yazoo Brewing may recall their stellar Vérifiez Vos Fruits! this beer to a whole other space, and it’s Co., made special for our Rare Beer Club we featured a few years back. This saison is certainly sturdy enough for some cellaring members. Monteur de Houblon is a barrel- another perfect example of what Brandon time. We suggest you hit up your aged, dry-hopped saison that features a Jones and company at Yazoo manage to go-tos as far as pairing options go. We’re higher-hopped version of the brewery’s bring to the table when it comes to sour thinking a variety of creamy cheeses as saison as its base, aged for 10-ish months beers: super complex, brilliantly citrusy and smooth counterpoints, or fresh seafood in neutral white oak barrels that had funky, with firm salinity and a well-layered dosed with lemon and butter. previously held the brewery’s . This acidic structure. A modest carbonation and beer uses Tennessee oats and wheat (from welcoming oak-barrel character provide a north of Nashville), and has a bit of the great framework for digging in, with subtle

MonthlyClubs.com® 800-625-8238 Volume 16 Issue 8

Dovetail Brewery Chicago, Illinois

Vignette (RBC Exclusive)

While Dovetail’s founders Bill Wesselink and custom water processing plant and malt Dovetail’s and Pomme are both Hagen Dost are both from Chicago, they handling system, and maturation tanks spontaneously fermented for up to 10 first met while working on their Master made from reconstructed stainless steel months atop Michigan-sourced raspberries Brewer Certifications at Doemens Institute dairy tanks. Their copper kettle is itself over and apples, respectively. Their draft-only in Munich. Sharing an appreciation for the a century old, acquired from the millennium- Petit Gueuze is a particularly limited blend traditional brewing methods of Europe, as plus-old Weihenstephan brewery in of one- and two-year-old batches, while well as the finer points of high-quality beer Germany. Dovetail sources their specialty the more experimental X02 Wild Table Beer culture, the two decided to combine their malt from Franconia, while their raw wheat combines Dovetail with spontaneously talents and launched Dovetail Brewery back and fresh fruit additions come from farmers fermented lambic-style beer. They even offer in Chicago in June of 2016. As they put it: “We within 150 miles of their brewery in Chicago. radlers—including a particularly intriguing decided to join our talents and shared vision Noble hops are used exclusively. blend of their Dovetail Rauchbier blended into a stronger form, like a dovetail joint. Our and hefeweizens both receive a double- 70/30 with Filbert’s Draft Root Beer (also goal is to produce beer of the highest quality, decoction mash for its added benefits in made in Chicago). similar to the level of craftsmanship found in flavor and head retention, while lambic- fine woodworking.” Not long after opening, style releases are turbid mashed for better As a Rare Beer Club exclusive offering this Dovetail was named one of BeerAdvocate’s complexity and allowed to rest for month, we’ve managed to secure bottles of Best New U.S. . up to 24 hours in their custom coolship, to the brewery’s Vignette: a celebration of the inoculate with wild yeasts native to Chicago. brewery’s first three years in operation. Dovetail Brewery has built a highly Throughout all the processes, Bill and Hagen (Continued on reverse page) customized brewhouse toward these aim to combine the very best of traditional ends, making use of Hagen’s previous and modern brewing. SPECIFICATIONS experience as a mechanical engineer. Their setup includes a custom-built and -designed The options on-site strongly reflect the Style coolship for traditionally cooling wort, a brewers’ respect for traditional European Spontaneously Fermented Blended styles, with German classics Sour Ale (lambic/gueuze style, aged like , Vienna, , up to 3 years in oak) and Rauchbier. Their Alcohol By Volume 6.5% Kriek is fermented for over Serving Temperature 2 ½ years in the Belgian 45–52° F tradition—using 2,300 Suggested Glassware pounds of Balaton cherries Tulip, Teku or Chardonnay Glass sourced from Michigan. Dovetail’s Vignette combines ten selected blended Belgian-style lambic, with its various things. Lots of vibrantly tart fresh lemons spontaneously fermented barrels that vary components aged in oak barrels for up to and assorted citrus, with complex tartness in age, up to 3 years, in the tradition of three years, and the final blend proves to and a toasty underpinning of subtle white Belgian Gueuze. It’s a perfect showcase of be exactly what we’re looking for from the pepper and sourdough. It could very well what the folks over at Dovetail have been up style: especially nuanced, vibrantly tart, and pass for traditional Belgian gueuze at first to, and we’re pumped to be able to offer it impeccably drinkable and dry. The folks at sip, firmly funky and lemony and sour, but exclusively through the Rare Beer Club. We Dovetail have been doing amazing stuff with those secondary notes of sourdough and really dig what these folks are up to, and their sour program, and there’s simply no pepper, even some limes and tangerine, definitely swing by their spot should you better beer for getting a clear sense of what bring Vignette into a very unique expression happen to be in Chicago. They’re open seven Bill and Hagen and company are capable of. of blended, spontaneously fermented beer. days a week, with food trucks and frequent It avoids an onslaught of sourness in favor special releases, with tours every Saturday at Dovetail Vignette pours a deeply honeyed of the superb drinkability of great gueuze, 11am. More at dovetailbrewery.com. golden color approaching orange, with a while a subtle blend of less-traditional modest coverage of off-white foam capping citrus character and yeast presence fits in Vignette things. The aromatics are full-on gueuze from seamlessly here. A huge success from the the start, with tart lemons and grapefruit, a Dovetail folks, and a perfect way to celebrate As one of two exclusive Rare Beer Club mélange of sourdough and expressive funk, their first three years. options this month, we’re pleased to and just a bit of salinity around the edges. offer members the first taste of Dovetail Hints of tangerine, and very subtle oaky Aging & Pairing Notes: Vignette—the brewery’s inaugural take vanilla from its time in barrels. It’s incredibly on a Belgian gueuze. Made with a turbid well blended for a U.S. take on gueuze, and This should continue to age gracefully over mash and spontaneously fermented in the even moreso for a brewery that’s barely the course of another year or two (at least). brewery’s custom coolship—using local been open three years. It would hold its own For food pairings, this should work nicely wild yeasts native to Chicago, for an entirely beside some of our fav Belgians. beside the same suggestions we provided for unique fermentation profile—Vignette’s Yazoo’s Monteur de Houblon: some creamy a blend of ten specially selected barrels The mouthfeel on this is phenomenal— and/or funky cheeses, buttery seafood—but from the brewery’s first three years in modestly carbonated, for just a lift of especially the traditional option of mussels operation. It’s a brilliantly handled take on bubbles, with assertive core acidity steering and Belgian-style frites.

Beyond the Bottle: The Seltzer Monster By Ken Weaver

Hard seltzer has been making a lot of noise this summer… This segment I did a roundup of hard seltzer for my column at All About Beer Magazine of bubbly alcoholic water has seen a 193% increase year-over-year in a a few years back, to the degree that I’m pretty good with never having recent Nielsen survey, and some industry analysts predict it’ll reach a to drink another one. But I’ll presume that the segment has improved $1-billion industry by the end of the year. U.S. Today (admittedly not at least a little bit from those earliest days, and I’m curious to hear from the most immediate barometer for cutting-edge beverage trends…) Rare Beer Club members who’ve ventured to hard-seltzer land. Have named it “the boozy beverage of summer 2019.” Your mileage may you actually tried anything interesting in this space? Or is it all nostalgic vary… But White Claw memes abound, and I have spent a nontrivial sugar water, masquerading as a health-conscious option to pull in the part of my week sketching out seltzer monsters for Massive Potions. light-beer crowd? Chime in on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.

It’s well outside the core Rare Beer Club wheelhouse—but it’s been Ken Weaver (@KenWeaver) is a beer writer, editor and cartoonist kinda hard to ignore. based in Petaluma, California. He makes a weekly webcomic—about a dysfunctional brewery/potion shop—at MassivePotions.com.

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