Beer Review: Brett Venture #2 With Lactobacillus

Reviewing Brett Venture #2 With Lactobacillus from Side Project Brewing out of St. Louis, Missouri. This is a bottle-conditioned, wine barrel fermented saison that uses an isolated Brett strain from Drie Fonteinen. What distinguishes this bottle from Brett Venture #2, as you might have guessed, is that Lactobacillus was added to the barrel that this was bottled from.

Score: 93

Front label bottle code is "021013," back label code is "L." This signals that this is Brett Venture #2 (the "02") with Lactobacillus (the "L"), and it was released in October 2013 (the "1013"). Served in a stemmed Crooked Stave Zwanze 2012 glass and enjoyed on 04/06/14.

Appearance: Pours a milky/cloudy yellow-orange cedar color with no head. Swirling the elixir fogs the inside of the glass. This beer looks like the smoothie from hell. Although the appearance does not count for much, this is a damn ugly beer. 1.5/5

Smell: Wine, peach and kiss of orange/citrus. A little bit of apple too. Smells a lot like a mimosa with a kiss of lacto and hay. 4.5/5

Taste: Tastes just like it smells - peach, wine, lacto and a little orange -- but with a lasting Bretty funk. As it warms, that Brett/hay funk flavors come through more and more towards the finish. Brett and wine flavor linger. Really nice. 4.25/5

Mouthfeel: Feels viscous for the style -- medium/medium-light bodied, low carbonation. Very mild acidity. Light/young, but lingering Bretty funk. Just a touch drying, but not "dry." 4.25/5

Overall: Although no fruit was added to this beer, it tastes like a slightly Bretted mimosa. Cory is doing some real special things with his sours.

Cost: $17 for a 750 ml bottle.