Deschutes Brewery is about to unleash The Dissident, their Flanders Oud Bruin-style wild ale, with an official release party this Friday the 19th (both in Bend and Portland). This year’s version is 10% alcohol by volume (the original was billed at 9%) and it should be interesting to compare side-by-side with my 2008 bottle.

The release party sounds pretty good too: in addition to being able to purchase bottles (which go on sale at 11am and are limited to six per person), there will be three specialty dishes starting at 5pm to pair with four sour/wild beers (The Dissident being one of them, naturally).

I find it interesting that since 2008’s Dissident, Deschutes has branched out more into the sour and wild ale realm, both in barrel aging with Brettanomyces and with soured wheats like their Benderweisse (in the style of a Berliner Weisse). It’ll be interesting to see where they go with it.