Following Up On Jester King and Bearded Tang<\/h2>\n
by C. C. Hansen<\/em><\/p>\n Quite often, I\u2019ll read about a cool brewery not near me and wonder, \u201cHow can I get my hands on one of those beers?\u201d Such was the case when I returned from my holiday visit to Texas. It\u2019s great writing about all these incredible weird brews available at Jester King, but now that I\u2019m back in So Cal, what can I do?<\/em><\/p>\n Cue the Elusive Isabella, who gifted me with a 750 ml bottle of Enigmatic Taxa from Jester King. \u201cWhere did you get that?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Glendale Tap<\/strong><\/a>. My friend Niko the bartender said he\u2019d recently read your post on Jester King<\/strong><\/a> and he thought you might appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut\u2026 but\u2026\u201d I sputtered.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t always have it, but the owner recently got a special delivery from Jester King.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWow,\u201d was all I could say, gobsmacked<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen was the last time you went to Glendale Tap?\u201d asked Isabella. \u201cYou know, they have a whole beer cellar now, with a bunch of rare and hard to find bottles and cans.\u00a0Nico says they\u2019ve got sours, barrel ages, and imperial stouts from all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Look at that list of Latin names! These must be the \u201ctaxa\u201d mentioned in the beer\u2019s title. I recognize a few right away: B. bruxellensis<\/em> (Belgian yeast), G. biloba <\/em>(Ginkgo biloba, an urban tree with a smelly fruit reputed to aid memory), H. lupulus <\/em>(the generic name for hops), and H. sapiens<\/em> (you and me!) I decided to look up C. x <\/em>paradis<\/i>i, just because it was kind of intriguing. Wouldn\u2019t you know? Grapefruit. Hah!<\/p>\n I leave it up to the reader to suss out the meanings of the other taxa found on this list.<\/p>\n The second thing I noticed on this label was \u201cA collaboration with Perennial Artisan Ales<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d If there\u2019s one thing you should know about the So Cal Craft Beer Blogger, it\u2019s that I love a collaboration. Located in St. Louis, MO, Perennial sports a logo featuring a leaf from the ginkgo tree. Hmmmm. Some iconic hipsters on the brewery\u2019s landing page dispel the notion that St. Louis is in any way deficient in this area of cultural expression.<\/p>\n According to the back panel on the Enigmatic Taxa label, this beer was inspired by Perennial\u2019s first<\/em> beer, which was an American-hopped interpretation of a West Flanders\u2019 pale ale, aka \u201cHommel.\u201d The label goes on to inform the reader that Enigmatic Taxa spent the night in Jester King\u2019s coolship with Texas grapefruit and oak foudre fermentation<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n I know. Sounds slightly inappropriate\u2026<\/p>\n Given my previous forays into Jester King brews, I was expecting something funky, sour, and altogether weird<\/em>.<\/p>\n What I was NOT expecting was a trip to the Sublime. <\/p>\n I know. Call me closed-minded or stuck in my ways. I expect better of myself, and so should you, dear reader. Enigmatic Taxa was, to put it plainly, \u201coff the chain<\/strong><\/a>\u201d as the kids used to say back in the day.<\/p>\n The first few sips highlighted a kind of light, citrus-y flavor with all kinds of mysterious things going on with it. I was expecting sour, as I said, and I didn\u2019t get it, which confused the evaluation process. One thing I did<\/em> get \u2014 in spades \u2014 was grapefruit zest. First as a long, lingering finish, and eventually as a key feature of the brew. The more I sipped, the more I enjoyed. Was I really<\/em> tasting the slightly sour, funky taste of ginkgo berries in the background? Regardless, there seemed to be a full spectrum<\/em> of tastes and flavors derived from spring rain, sprouting grain, blue skies, and a subtle but complex range of botanicals: basil, lemongrass, and the entire hop palette detailed below. <\/p>\n This beer was actually a 2022 \u201cre-brew\u201d of Jester King\u2019s original 2017 offering.<\/p>\n We brewed a 13 Plato wort with Llano, Texas Pilsner malt, Biscuit, Carafoam, and a touch of Abbey Malt. We kettle hopped with Columbus, Loral, Ekuanot, and aged hops. We racked the wort to our coolship for overnight chilling and added fresh grapefruit zest and juice that we hand-processed. The next morning we racked the wort to stainless steel for mixed culture fermentation with our blend of brewers yeast and native yeast from our land. After primary fermentation, we dry-hopped with Cascade, Belma, Mosaic, and X17 from The Oregon Hophouse. Unfiltered, unpasteurized, and naturally conditioned. 7.0% abv.<\/p>\n https:\/\/jesterkingbrewery.com\/main-blog\/2022-enigmatic-taxa<\/a><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As Eleanor and I enjoyed our final few sips, we repeated to each other for the umpteenth time how much we \u201creally liked\u201d this beer. Perhaps some of the \u201cenigmatic taxa\u201d began to \u201ccome on,\u201d as I started practically tripping on all the new flavors I was getting as the beer was disappearing.<\/p>\n \u201cWait,\u201d I said to Eleanor, \u201cthis is starting to taste a whole lot more like fortified wine than ale. Is it a sauterne I\u2019m picking up here? Maybe it\u2019s more a muscatel. Or like that after dinner liqueur the Elusive Isabella pours you at Deluxe 1717<\/a><\/strong>. What\u2019s it called? \u2018Passito\u2019? From the island of Pantelleria, between Tunisia and Sicily?\u201d<\/p>\n Eleanor archly raised one eyebrow, said nothing, and knocked back the last of the Enigmatic. I quickly followed suit.<\/p>\n Damn, that\u2019s good beer. Thank you Elusive Isabella. Thank you Niko. Thank you Glendale Tap. And thank you Jester King and Perennial Artisan Ales. <\/p>\n After the So Cal Craft Beer Blog\u2019s Orange County blogger Stephanie wrote about Bearded Tang in January<\/strong><\/a>, we started following the brewery on Instagram. Which is how we learned that the brewery had racked up some impressive wins at the 2024 California Craft Brewers Cup.<\/p>\n For a full list of the brewery\u2019s awards over the last few years, click on their Awards page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Congratulations to Jerrod, Jordan, and your whole crew!<\/p>\n That\u2019s it for me this time. <\/p>\n Chauncey B. out\u2026<\/p>\n Instagram and Threads: @socalcraftbeer Following Up On Jester King and Bearded Tang by C. C. Hansen Quite often, I\u2019ll read about a cool brewery not near me and wonder, \u201cHow can I get my hands on one of those beers?\u201d Such was the case when I returned from my holiday visit to Texas. It\u2019s great writing about all these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[3171,3767,6710,2171,38983,43387],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-89167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer","tag-beer","tag-blog","tag-cal","tag-craft","tag-enigmatic","tag-taxa"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/socalcraftbeerblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/enigmatic-cover.jpg?w=1024\")
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nInspecting the Label<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe Verdict<\/h2>\n
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Congratulations to Bearded Tang Brewing<\/h2>\n
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\nCheers!<\/h3>\n
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Facebook:\u00a0http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socalcraftbeer<\/a>
Mastadon: @socalcraftbeer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"