Following Up On Jester King and Bearded Tang
by C. C. Hansen
Quite often, I’ll read about a cool brewery not near me and wonder, “How can I get my hands on one of those beers?” Such was the case when I returned from my holiday visit to Texas. It’s great writing about all these incredible weird brews available at Jester King, but now that I’m back in So Cal, what can I do?
Cue the Elusive Isabella, who gifted me with a 750 ml bottle of Enigmatic Taxa from Jester King. “Where did you get that?” I asked.
“At Glendale Tap. My friend Niko the bartender said he’d recently read your post on Jester King and he thought you might appreciate it.”
“But… but…” I sputtered.
“They don’t always have it, but the owner recently got a special delivery from Jester King.”
“Wow,” was all I could say, gobsmacked.
“When was the last time you went to Glendale Tap?” asked Isabella. “You know, they have a whole beer cellar now, with a bunch of rare and hard to find bottles and cans. Nico says they’ve got sours, barrel ages, and imperial stouts from all over the world.”
Inspecting the Label
Look at that list of Latin names! These must be the “taxa” mentioned in the beer’s title. I recognize a few right away: B. bruxellensis (Belgian yeast), G. biloba (Ginkgo biloba, an urban tree with a smelly fruit reputed to aid memory), H. lupulus (the generic name for hops), and H. sapiens (you and me!) I decided to look up C. x paradisi, just because it was kind of intriguing. Wouldn’t you know? Grapefruit. Hah!
I leave it up to the reader to suss out the meanings of the other taxa found on this list.
The second thing I noticed on this label was “A collaboration with Perennial Artisan Ales.” If there’s one thing you should know about the So Cal Craft Beer Blogger, it’s that I love a collaboration. Located in St. Louis, MO, Perennial sports a logo featuring a leaf from the ginkgo tree. Hmmmm. Some iconic hipsters on the brewery’s landing page dispel the notion that St. Louis is in any way deficient in this area of cultural expression.
According to the back panel on the Enigmatic Taxa label, this beer was inspired by Perennial’s first beer, which was an American-hopped interpretation of a West Flanders’ pale ale, aka “Hommel.” The label goes on to inform the reader that Enigmatic Taxa spent the night in Jester King’s coolship with Texas grapefruit and oak foudre fermentation.
I know. Sounds slightly inappropriate…
The Verdict
Given my previous forays into Jester King brews, I was expecting something funky, sour, and altogether weird.
What I was NOT expecting was a trip to the Sublime.
I know. Call me closed-minded or stuck in my ways. I expect better of myself, and so should you, dear reader. Enigmatic Taxa was, to put it plainly, “off the chain” as the kids used to say back in the day.
The first few sips highlighted a kind of light, citrus-y flavor with all kinds of mysterious things going on with it. I was expecting sour, as I said, and I didn’t get it, which confused the evaluation process. One thing I did get — in spades — was grapefruit zest. First as a long, lingering finish, and eventually as a key feature of the brew. The more I sipped, the more I enjoyed. Was I really tasting the slightly sour, funky taste of ginkgo berries in the background? Regardless, there seemed to be a full spectrum of tastes and flavors derived from spring rain, sprouting grain, blue skies, and a subtle but complex range of botanicals: basil, lemongrass, and the entire hop palette detailed below.
This beer was actually a 2022 “re-brew” of Jester King’s original 2017 offering.
We brewed a 13 Plato wort with Llano, Texas Pilsner malt, Biscuit, Carafoam, and a touch of Abbey Malt. We kettle hopped with Columbus, Loral, Ekuanot, and aged hops. We racked the wort to our coolship for overnight chilling and added fresh grapefruit zest and juice that we hand-processed. The next morning we racked the wort to stainless steel for mixed culture fermentation with our blend of brewers yeast and native yeast from our land. After primary fermentation, we dry-hopped with Cascade, Belma, Mosaic, and X17 from The Oregon Hophouse. Unfiltered, unpasteurized, and naturally conditioned. 7.0% abv.
As Eleanor and I enjoyed our final few sips, we repeated to each other for the umpteenth time how much we “really liked” this beer. Perhaps some of the “enigmatic taxa” began to “come on,” as I started practically tripping on all the new flavors I was getting as the beer was disappearing.
“Wait,” I said to Eleanor, “this is starting to taste a whole lot more like fortified wine than ale. Is it a sauterne I’m picking up here? Maybe it’s more a muscatel. Or like that after dinner liqueur the Elusive Isabella pours you at Deluxe 1717. What’s it called? ‘Passito’? From the island of Pantelleria, between Tunisia and Sicily?”
Eleanor archly raised one eyebrow, said nothing, and knocked back the last of the Enigmatic. I quickly followed suit.
Damn, that’s good beer. Thank you Elusive Isabella. Thank you Niko. Thank you Glendale Tap. And thank you Jester King and Perennial Artisan Ales.
Congratulations to Bearded Tang Brewing
After the So Cal Craft Beer Blog’s Orange County blogger Stephanie wrote about Bearded Tang in January, we started following the brewery on Instagram. Which is how we learned that the brewery had racked up some impressive wins at the 2024 California Craft Brewers Cup.
- Best in Show/ Gold–Ausflippen* German Pilsner
- Gold–OG Hazy German Hefeweizen
- Silver–T-Minus 10° Unfiltered Czech Pale Lager
For a full list of the brewery’s awards over the last few years, click on their Awards page.
Congratulations to Jerrod, Jordan, and your whole crew!
That’s it for me this time.
Cheers!
Chauncey B. out…
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