Funky Fat Tire(s)

[mashani]

I found these.

One is Fat Tire brewed with a Belgian yeast and the bottled with Brett.

The other is Fat Tire blended with Laco fermented sour apple cider.

They are now in my fridge. I will review later.

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[mashani]

So the sour apple one.

The first sip is a bit like a Berliner with a shot of European sugary syrup in it to tone it down. It is more lemony then appley due to the lacto. You can smell the lacto, but it doesn't hammer you when you taste it.

It does not taste of apple strongly in a way I'd describe as "cider" or "apple juice". It is more about the lacto/lemony sour - except toned down.

Very quickly (almost instantly) the malty and bready/sweet nature of the Fat Tire base starts to come through and it finishes like a drier/crisper/lighter bodied (more Belgian I would actually say in that regards) version of fat tire. The sour doesn't linger, it gets replaced. The sour isn't strong beyond the first couple of seconds because it very quickly has the fat tire malty vibe piled on top. It leaves a "fat tire" vibe in your mouth as a finish, not a lacto vibe or a cider vibe.

So, think of this as fat tire balanced more for a warm summer evening, instead of a cool fall evening. Sort of like "Fat Tire Shandy". Except the "lemonade" part is alcoholic too.

So this is a sour for folks who don't like sours. The sour really is just a balancer that makes the fat tire seem more refreshing.

[swenocha]

You will have to try the other 3 as well. I will likely grab the mix pack this week

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[mashani]

Fat funk... it is much less recognizable as Fat Tire then the sour one. It tastes sort of like the Oktoberfest that I made last year with Belgian Ardennes, except fermented with something more like Wyeast 3942, with a bit of brett and spicy/clove phenols added (which brings it closer to Ardennes like profile). The funk from the Brett is there but minimal. Almost like how my own house brett is if I get a low level secondary infection. Maybe age would bring it out, but considering this is in a plain new Belgium type bottle, if the Brett is still active then bottle bombs might occur if aged for a long time. Unless they killed it. Or it is wimpy brett.

So if the sour was a sour for people who don't like sours, this is a brett beer for people who don't like brett. Although if you hate on Belgian or Wheat beer yeast you would still hate it.

I don't know that I would be able to tell you this is fat tire base in a blind tasting. The sour apple / lacto one at the finish tastes like fat tire. This one not so much. The brett and light phenols from the yeast linger on the finish and cover it up. The only beer I've had that tasted similar to this was my own Belgian Oktoberfest.

I am happy to drink it, but if I brewed it, I'd not brew it again. I don't like it that much. I drank all my Belgian Oktoberfest, but I don't think I'd do that again either. It was fine to drink and a fun experiment, but it never rocked my world as such. If I did mine again I'd do it with a different yeast strain, although I don't know which one.

@Swen, I didn't see a whole box with all the varieties, just these singles. I know there is a "wild" one, I would try that if I saw it. I mainly got these just to see what a bit of funk would do to fat tire.