Blink and Miss Them: Yazoo Taproom Specials

Nancy and I don't usually venture downtown during rush hour, but Sept. 12's taproom exclusives at Yazoo were entirely too tantalizing.  With only one keg of a sour brew and something unique on the Beer Engine, we had to trek to the Gulch.

With just a single keg, the first choice was simple. Lange Sommer (Long Summer in German), a Berliner Weisse style ale brewed with local peaches. Forty pounds of local peaches. Berliner Weisse is often served with a syrup in Germany, but the addition of fruit to the brew adds bold new dimensions. This sour wheat ale comes off as quenching and complex. Lange Sommer has a cloudy, lemon-peach body. Slight wisps of lace crown Lange Sommer, which comes on strong with loads of peach, tangerine, orange and lemon. Tart and sour, the fruit presentation never turns sweet as a lambic would. The peach sour notes peak mid to late palate. The sour diminishes by the dry finish, which spots a dose of lemon pepper.

For an encore, Yazoo had primed its Beer Engine with a fresh-hop pale ale made with the hops Nancy and I helped pick a few weeks earlier. This was not Bell's Bend Preservation Ale, the primary source of the fresh hops we helped pick a few weeks ago and will soon hit the Nashville market, but another ale crafted with the same mystery hops. 

The engine supplies beer with much less carbonation and the flavors of the hops are highly expressive. The head was both creamy and oily, the latter due to the fresh hops. Rich hop aromas, with citrus and pine headlining, rise from the ale. Passion fruit is abound in its taste, with some slight mango and even blood orange creeping in behind grapefruit and the pine notes. More oily notes appear and there are some hints of resin, but nothing overwhelming. The hop fruitiness hit more on the early palate and does not carry to the finish, although some of the pine character does.

These two vastly different styles made a drive during rain and rush hour worthwhile. It'
hard to wait to see the next sour and hoppy surprises that end up on tap at Yazoo.