Surprise Review: Surly Pentagram

I bought a bottle of Surly Pentagram on a whim today, largely due to the fact that it is (sort of) a beer-wine hybrid, which is an area of drink that I am very interested in.  At $35 per bottle, its not terrible, but I don't think I will be picking it up again. I applaud Surly for their creativity, but so far have only found myself to be liking this particular brew.  Furious is much too hoppy for my taste, and The Darkness was all kinds of bad, for reasons that I will not get into in this post.

Pentagram is a dark beer aged in red wine barrels that is fermented by a yeast strain called Brettanomyces, according to the back of the bottle.  "Brett," according to Wikipedia, is a wild yeast strain most often found on the skins of fruits.  It was discovered in the early part of the 20th century in a study of causes of spoilage in English ales, and has since become important in both beer and wine making for the flavor compounds it impairs (apparently, when grown in glucose, it produces large amounts of acetic acid), and as such it is used in some red wines meant to be drank younger to impart an aged, complex character.  In the beer world, it is most commonly viewed as a contaminant, though traditional Belgian lambic styles make use of it (being spontaneously fermented by wild yeast).

I poured Pentagram out of its 750 mm bottle into a tulip glass.  It was dark enough to be opaque, and it had a highly fizzy head (actually making a fizzing noise like a Coca Cola), which left no lacing on the glass at all.  The nose is predominantly sour, with slightly fruity undertones.  The palate is not as sour and gamey as the few unfruited lambics I have tried, but does have more than a hint of that same flavor.  The mouth feel is thinner than how I remember a lambic, as well, more like a lager.  The bottle claims that it has notes of sour cherry, oak, and tobacco.  Honestly, my palate is not refined enough to pick up on them.  All I know is I quite like it, I just don't like it $35 a bottle.  If they brought it out at a lower price point, it might become a more regular stock for me.

As far as food pairings go, I would probably treat Pentagram as I would a reasonably affordable red wine--it would make a very interesting substitution. . .though really, with a flavor profile this distinctive, I am much more likely to drink it by itself.