Oud Bruin
by BradEver since I started this blog, I've been wanting to make some Sour Ale pancakes. I always thought the first one I would do would be the beer that introduced me to sours (and is still one of my favorites) - Monk's Cafe. What I discovered, though, is that I almost never have bottles of Monk's Cafe due to my policy of not buying beer I've already had before. So when I came across the last 4-pack of Oud Bruin at Star Liquor the other day, I had to grab it. And, after having a bottle sitting in the fridge for awhile, I decided it was finally time.
Oud Bruin is one of New Glarus Brewing Company's "thumbprint" series - one-off brews they throw together to try things out, for fun, or for special occasions. It isn't the first sour they've offered (I think I still have one bottle of the Wild Sour in my beer reserve), but that certainly doesn't make it any lesser. Oud Bruin is more of a traditional Flanders style ale than some of the newer-age sours. The beer is delightfully mellow and malty with some cherry tartness and an oaky finish that rounds out the beer. It gets better as it warms up a bit, too. How does it fare as our first-ever Sour Ale pancakes?
Prep/Cooking
Oud Bruin as a beer and Oud Bruin as batter are almost two entirely different beasts. Both delicious in their own right, but almost nothing alike. The batter had absolutely no sense of sour or tartness that characterize the beer, and the flavor reminded me of Christmas cookie dough (somehow). They also had an incredible aftertaste - the malts really came through here. Color and aroma were nothing notable, though.
Results
Just as different as the beer was from the batter, the batter was from the pancakes. I don't think I've seen a beer change this much across the spectrum. The pancakes weren't sour either, but they actually had a really nice flavor to them. Very flavorful with strong malt notes and a little bit of spice to them. Clove? Nutmeg, maybe? The world may never know.
The Decision
- Pancakes: Yes. Even though they didn't at all come out how I expected them to, the pancakes overall were enjoyable.
- Syrup: Yes. Yes, actually. I'm guessing what happened is that when we left liquid form, we lost some of the sweetness in the flavor profile. Adding the syrup brought some of the sourness back to the panacakes, which was interesting but also very, very welcome.
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