Dissident x 2: The result is a virtual textbook on aged versus new Flanders ales.
I’ve adopted a new writing paradigm for the future. In the past, I’ve taken some pains to over-explain the styles and terminology and other factors which underlie beverages I reviewed. After almost sixteen years of this thing, I have to suppose that enough of the people who routinely read this have enough of a knowledge base that I don’t have to do that. Also, y’know…google. If you’re curious and motivated enough, you can find exhaustive explanations of what I cover here, so…do that.
That prefaces this: Deschutes iconic Belgian-style tart ale, The Dissident, belongs to a class of Flanders-style beers known as Sour Brown ales. Flanders also produces sour Reds and Blondes but the brown, or “Oud Bruin”, is the most common iteration. And, over craft’s history, The Dissident and New Belgium Brewing’s also-iconic “La Folie” have been the last word on America’s Belgian-style sour Browns.
These ales are often infused with various fruit and cherries are almost a classic choice. Cherries take to “tart” like cats take to tuna. And cherries in a sour Brown are such a perfect match that my mouth just started to water, writing this. Deschutes has done a fair bit of experimenting with fruit in this beer: peaches, raspberries, and marionberries worked but not quite the way that lush cherry bite does. When Deschutes decided to go back to the cherries, here in 2023, they rereleased the last cherry iteration, from 2019, along with the new one. For contrast. Or just for kicks. They didn’t say and, knowing the Folks on Simpson as I (sorta) do, I suspect the latter.
The result is a virtual textbook on aged versus new Flanders ales. The 2023 is SOUR – WHOPPIN’ tart and even a tad puckery but seriously delicious. It is probably NOT for sour beer newbies but, those of us who fell early and often for Duchesse de Bourgogne and Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge and Lost Abbey Red Poppy and Bacchus and Allagash James & Julie, went for this beer from its 2008 git-go and never let go. The 2023, in terms of overt tartness, falls in the upper end of the spectrum, aggressively tart but exploding with huge Oregon cherry FLAVOR, underpinned by graham crackers and wheat toast and a lovely edge of Saaz hops that lurks beneath the cherry depths. Those of us who explore breweries like Crooked Stave and Cascade Barrelhouse and Jolly Pumpkin and de Garde and my own homies, E9 Brewing, will recognize this aesthetic instantly. The Dissident sour walks the fine line between civilized and a firm tongue-punch and that’s just how we like it.
Along with the ’23, Deschutes sent along a bottle of the 2019 and the difference was stark and a tad shocking. Sours are live beers, which means that some fraction of the yeasts used remain viable and continue to work on the beer. These beers are vividly age-worthy. They often become almost unrecognizable from when they were first released. I remember the 2019 from when Deschutes first released it and it was a LOT like the 2023: lively, SOUR, a bit rambunctious, and screaming “CHERRIES!!” loudly and passionately. But the aging of the 2019, in those four intervening years, has transformed this ale from tongue-clenching to satiny and sour in the way a cherry pie can be. It’s not sweet at all but is so damnably easy to drink that it may even work on newbies, especially as a primer on what can happen if they want to buy some now and See What Happens. It is a succulent, mouth-watering, complex, and engrossing beer; a tapestry of wood notes, nuts and grains, yeasty fruit and spice flavors, a boozy undertone, and those massive, rich cherries. I nursed this bottle for three nights, doling out about six ounces at a time. It was everything I want in a sour ale. It stands maybe a half-step behind the immortal Duchesse de Bourgogne in my pantheon of Sours I Want When I Want a Sour. It’s a hair ahead of my guilty pleasure, Petrus Red. I’m still not going to suggest that anyone’s exploration of sour ales should start with The Dissident ’19 but it certainly would be Next or Soon.
I was DELIGHTED to see these two iconic American sours show up on my porch and urge you, sour-monkey that you are, to seek out the ’23 and go on safari for the elusive ’19. Either one is well worth the effort.
The Pour Fool 