Petrus Sour Beers: Blending Beers Inside And Outside The Brewery

By Ben Kramer in Food on May 4, 2015 4:45PM

Rock stars go on tour, wrestlers go on tour and even politicians go on tour when campaigning. However, it’s not often a pair of Belgians, touring 11 cities in 14 days, come to the United States to talk about their beer. Yet, that’s what Albert Brabandere and Yves Benoit of Brewery De Brabandere have been doing, educating beer lovers across the country on Brabandere’s Petrus Sour Beers. The duo made a quick stop at Hopleaf on April 27 to talk about their sours and souring process.

Before diving into the Petrus Sour Beers, a brief background on the brewery is necessary. The family-owned brewery was established in 1894 and Albert Brabandere is its 5th generation owner. Not a one trick pony, Brabandere has a stable of other brands such as Bavik and Wittekerke, just to mention a few. But he focused on the Petrus Sours at Hopleaf.

To discuss PSB, it’s best to start with the “Mother Beer,” Petrus Aged Pale. It is blended with two other Brabandere beers to create the Petrus Sours Oud Bruin, a Flemish red-brown ale and Aged Red, a fruit beer with cherries. It’s also mixed with Red to create 50/50, a half and half of the two.

Aged Pale was never intended for the public, but it's available now. It was merely a blending beer, stored in 220 hectoliter oak foeders, used for PSB’s Oud Bruin to give it a slightly sour flavor. It wasn’t until world renowned beer expert Michael Jackson (no, not the man who moonwalked Motown 25) stopped by the brewery in the '90s and wanted to try the beer.

In short, Jackson loved the beer and wanted to showcase it at some clubs he owned in England and America. A back and forth ensued between the brewery and writer and finally they acquiesced, on the condition he name the beer. Because it has a pale color and is aged in oak, he named it Aged Pale. The name stuck, the beer became a success and has been served to the public since 2001.

That covers AP’s origin story, but how does it get sour and why isn't its sourness overwhelming? Brewmaster Yves Benoit cited the 220 hectoliter oak foeders, which contain seven different bacteria, including Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces. These bacteria infect the beer, giving AP its signature sourness. The beer sits in the foeders for 24 or 36 months and in that time the sourness mellows out.

No oak flavor is absorbed into the beer, primarily because of the foeders' large size. The more space the beer has to roam, the less it touches the walls, allowing the wood flavor in the brew to spread around. When a bourbon ale is made, in contrast, the space in the barrel is usually so tight that the wood character has almost no choice but to blend with the beer's flavor profile.

Blending is key to Petrus, and that extends beyond the blending in the brewery. Brabandere encourages consumers to mix Petrus Sours together.They’re already mixed, so why not mix them some more? Why not mix Oud Bruin with Aged Red? PA is fine on its own and so is Red, but put them together and you get something deeper, slightly sweet and with good body.

It's not often you can play with your beer, so give it a go. These beers be found at Binny's across the city. Remember, this may be the one time you can play mad scientist with beer outside of the realms of home-brewing.