BREWING wasn't always as scientific as it is nowadays. Everything is kept under close scrutiny as liquid is moved between stainless steel tanks and ingredients are added at just the right time, noted and tested as the brew goes on.
Of course, what makes beer beer is the fermentation and great care is taken here also to allow the yeast to feast on the sugars and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide (the bubbles).
All of this is carried out in the most sanitary of conditions, but this wasn't always the case, resulting in a mix of good and bad outcomes.
A few centuries ago when the wort (that's the beer before it's fermented) was exposed to the air around it (not always intentionally, but more often than a food safety officer of today would be comfortable with), several airborne organisms made their way into it under the creaking rooves of Belgian farmhouses and lots of weird and wonderful things happened.
One of those would have been what has now become known as brettanomyces, which is a genus of yeast largely responsible for the funky and tart flavours in some beers.
There was a time when this 'wild yeast' was thought to have been a spoiler of beer, but over the years, craft brewers have managed to tame this wild strain for use in some of their beers.
And so now we have a line of 'brett' beers, which has seen all kinds of ale brewed with the wild yeast.
Dipping their toe in the brett pond is Kinnegar, who have been fairly churning out the specials since moving to their bigger and brighter facility in Letterkenny. One such special is Phunk Bucket, a brett ale which features, as the 'Bucket' name suggests, their signature rye malt. A brett rye ale, it comes in a 750ml bottle which, although fine for sharing, is plenty for one as this is a pretty moreish beer.
It comes in at seven per cent abv and is sufficiently murky in the glass, especially when you get to tip the final bits clinging to the bottom of the bottle. I love bottle-conditioned beers and don’t care much for instructions which advise to leave a bit in the bottom – chuck it all in and swirl it around is my philosophy.
Anyway, Phunk Bucket is a wonderful mix of a funky, tart and refreshing brett ale and the spice warmth of a rye ale. It has that kind of candied sweetness you'd get from a Belgian ale, with a bit of fruitiness to it as well – kind of a candied apple feel.
