Trying Dominique

The other night I was at Bar Deville on Damen to celebrate a friend's birthday. I had a couple of the bar's signature cocktails, and it was nearing the end of the night, so I felt like trying a good beer. I looked up and down the tappers and saw a Goose Island I couldn't remember having. Now, I've had a lot of beers, and a lot of Goose Island, so there was a good chance that I could have had this beer at some point. Luckily for me, the beer was a mistake and a beautiful one at that.

The beer is called Dominique, and it came about because a batch of Matilda became infected. You can read more about what happened here, but basically the barrel-aged beer became infected with a yeast that left the beer more sour. Instead of dumping it, Goose Island decided to put out a sour beer and see the response. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

For one, I love sour beers. Flemish sours are great. Understandably, not everyone might share the same enthusiasm for drinking sour beers. The idea that a beer should be clear, light and refreshing has left a perverted notion of what quality is to most beer drinkers. This beer by contrast tasted of alcohol, wood, burnt sugar, light hops, good yeast and sour through and through. Even some of my friends that don't particularly like beer, enjoyed it.

This is the height of experimentation for craft beer. I like that Goose Island saw an opportunity to bring something different to the market, and maybe through its brand recognition, get people to try something new.

 Here is a picture of Dominique Pichon because he's awesome.