Beer by the Grill: Lagunitas Aunt Sally

Another article in which I describe a beer that has been sent to me from the brewer for my consideration.

Seen here are the remains of a once fine grilling set. It was one of my rewards for passing a milestone of drinking beers under the old Rock Bottom Rock Rewards program, and has been one of the most appreciated and well-used loyalty card reward or work anniversary gift I’ve ever had. But they have faced some obvious neglect over the years: being left out in the rain, or rolled up and put away while the wooden handles are still damp. This has led to the wood splitting and getting moldy. Yet the steel parts are still very functional, and sharp where they need to be. But I now need to start looking for some replacements, preferably with silicone handles that I can put in a dishwasher. The sauce brush has already gone the way of the dodo, though.

All of this leading to my Father’s Day grill, with a Lagunitas Aunt Sally beer, described as “A unique dry-hopped sweet tart sour mash ale.” Dedicated to anyone who, as a kid, had a swingin’ aunt who made them feel strange when she visited in the summer. This was sent to me with a personallized beer stocking (whoever’s doing these, please stop), a T-shirt (never in my size, I am a beer guy, after all) and a sheet with the label art blown up and markers to color it in.

I have brought this up from the fridge while grilling some sliced ham today. I know that ham, being a cured meat, is already ready to eat, but a guy can’t help but had his own touch of dry rub and grill marks to any meat. Besides, it’s been in the freezer for some months, and we want to be especially safe these days. And some of it will get cooked again in a stir fry.

Like the many other sours I’ve tried this season, this beer has a tart smell under the cap, something like a strawberry-rhubarb pie. In the glass, the smell focuses more on the hops that were added after fermentation, with some earthiness and bittering that may include a citrus or pine note, but much of that component comes from the sour malt. The beer is slightly darker than the familiar gold of a light lager, with a fizzy head. The taste has alighter tart than any sourness, a bit less sour than the Two Brothers A bretter Day. I have had a few local dry-hopped sour beers already, which demonstrates that this is a thing, but those still needed more work on their recipes. This one shows that work and time. The hops are a better balance to the more fruity tartness that marks this to a wild yeast ferment over acidulation.

And just to demonstrate how I sometimes go off the cuff on my blogging: it is a tradition with sour beers like a Berliner Weisse (which this isn’t, but follow me along here) to offer a small portion of flavored syrup for people who find the beers too sour. This one’s just fine, but if you also have mulberry trees in your yard, you may already have some picked, don’t you. When I got to the last few ounces of this beer, I tossed in about a dozen or so mulberries, and mashed them in with a spoon. The result is something a little more sweet, and with a bit of berry flavor, but not really that much. Of course my method leaves a lot of crushed berries and little stems in the beer, but this would be something that’d work better in a juicer, or maybe loaded into a Randall.

By the way, I’ve been sent another release Tuesday from Lagunitas that involves something they swore they be the last brewer to do. More details this weekend!