Keep your eyes open for the KMF: Samuel Adams’ limited edition grand cru beer, formally known as Kosmic Mother Funk.

An aged Belgian style ale, it spends a full year in Hungarian oak casks, and here’s why:

The inspiration for Kosmic Mother Funk is Belgian beer styles and brewing techniques including blending, aging and conditioning beers for wild and flavorful results. The Samuel Adams brewers began by taking a Belgian ale and aging it in Hungarian oak tuns and as time went on the beer continued to evolve and take on a life and character of its own, only to be described as a kosmic collection of flavors. The porous character of the wood allows air to slowly seep into the beer during secondary fermentation, smoothing out any harsh flavors. Wild yeast and bacteria including Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus also interact with the aging brew, imparting unique spicy, fruity and bright tart flavors.  Long contact with the wood imparts its own flavors of oak and vanilla.  This unique brew was then blended at varying levels into a series of Belgian brews, the manifestation of which became the Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection.

“Kosmic Funk” is pretty much right. This is a wild concoction that would immediately explode the zombie head of Adolphus Busch. The nose reeks of a typical sour beer — sour cherry, sawdust, and vinegar notes. That acidic, throat-scorching cherry vinegar character hits hard on the palate, a smattering of malt oddly complementing the wild, almost abrasive brew. Compelling, but it’s a massive undertaking to get your arms around it. This isn’t something most of us are likely to consume on a regular basis — which is a good thing, since the only way you can try KMF is by encountering it on the KMF roadshow. See the link below for a location near you.

6.4% abv.

B+ / not on sale / samueladams.com

Samuel Adams Kosmic Mother Funk Grand Cru

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8.5

Rating

8.5/10