What do you do after trying seven different lambics in the afternoon at Oud Beersel Spring Release? Going to a bar to try some more wild fermented beer of course. In this case, Le Barboteur in Schaarbeek, Brussels.
Le Barboteur is a bar and bottle shop in one. They have a broad selection of beers from the tap and an extraordinary amount of bottles. Sometimes they have Antidoot in stock too, only to be enjoyed ‘sur place’, not to go. From the inside, Le Barboteur is a cozy bar. Outside they have a big terrace with a fantastic view of the Saint-Servais church.
Looking at the fridge, stocked with a fair amount of wild-fermented beers from Belgium and from other countries, a beautifully designed label caught my eye. Upon inspection, I discovered this amazing label belonged to Cassis by Brekeriet, a brewery that had already been on my wild-fermented beer radar. Cassis, as the name already suggests, contains blackcurrants. It’s a wild-fermented beer, aged on red wine barrels for thirteen months. It contains malted barley, wheat, and rye. Cassis is part of the Brekeriet Vild Series including amongst others, Tilda (with sea buckthorn), and Coulis (with sloe berries and sour cherries).
Taste-wise, this is a beer for the real sour heads. Upon first taste, it’s almost mouth-puckering sour. However, after the initial ‘shock’ fades away there’s a nice subtle blackcurrant aftertaste. Personally, for me, this beer misses the complex well-balanced flavor one can find in a gueuze or lambic. It’s a bit too one-dimensional. Nonetheless, it’s still an enjoyable wild beer. I can imagine it would especially be good on a hot summer day paired with a nice fatty steak straight from the barbecue.
Brekeriet is a Swedish brewery from Landskrona. It’s a family-run brewery producing wild and barrel-fermented beers. Brekeriet was founded in 2012 by three brothers. They also make kimchi and distill their wild-fermented beers, under the brand names Brekeriet Flora and Brekeriet Distillery respectively.
I’m excited to try other Brekeriet beers in the future. Visit my website or follow me on Instagram to stay tuned.