Beer of the Week! 08/17/2021

Funk Silent Luau

Regularly $13.99 / Now on Sale for $12.96
New England Style IPA with Pineapple

In 2014, brothers-in-law Kyle Funk and Jon Norman started brewing beer in their garages. One dream, one trip to brewing school, and one (or is it two? one each?) background in business and mechanical engineering later, and today the two are co-owners of Funk Brewing in Emmaus, PA — just south of Allentown (and north and way east of us).

One of Funk’s year-round offerings is the New England Style IPA the Silent Disco. Soft and creamy, it’s already pretty juicy due to Funk having squeezed notes of guava, mango, and pineapple out of its Columbus and Mosaic hops. Apparently, however, notes were not enough. Enter the Silent Luau — the Silent Disco with actual pineapple added to it.

The really interesting thing about this beer is that the pineapple flavor is not as strong as you expect it to be. We think that’s because Funk doesn’t let a lot of the sweetness of the pineapple stay in the resultant beer. What you get then is the fruity tang of the pineapple around the edges, fattening out the juiciness of the brew.

The Silent Luau is definitely different from other Pineapple IPAs, but it continues our streak of never having tasted a Pineapple IPA that we didn’t like.

Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause there’s an “I” in “Single,” but there’s an “us” in “Bonus.”)

Ommegang Solera

Regularly $12.99 / Now on Sale for $11.96
Belgian Style Mixed Fermentation Blended Sour

Years ago, Cooperstown, NY’s Brewery Ommegang (dedicated to Belgian style beers) was bought by Belgian beer group Duvel Moortgat. One of the gifts that keeps on giving from that purchase is Ommegang’s access to another Duvel brewery, Liefmans — masters of Belgian blended sours.

The Solera (formerly the Pale Sour) is fermented with a mix of different yeast strains and lactobacillus bacteria, is open fermented in copper vats, and is then aged for months. Liefmans then blends the beer with younger and older versions of itself to get the right balance of sour and sweet notes.

If your idea of a “sour beer” comes from Germany with Goses or Berliner Weisses, then you should let the Solera be your introduction the wonderful world of Belgian mixed fermentation beers.

Remember!

You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!