Beer – #589 – Wild Beer – Somerset Wild
Wild Beer Somerset Wild, it was that kind of day. Wild about beer, Wild about music, Wild with numbers and a wild time out.
Spontaneously fermented berlinner weisse inspired beer. “the yakult of beers”. Lactobacillus, pediococcus, brettanomyces. Wild apple starter to generate the fermentation organisms
This is a 330ml bottle, and it is of 5% ABV and that makes it both 150 calories a serve and 1.3 standard drink units.
Brewed by Wild Beer in the style that is Sour/Wild Ale and they are in the glorious town of Shepton Mallet, England
Fermented with a locally harvested culture of yeasts and bacteria from the orchards that Somerset is famous for
Wild and windy, and that’s just me
The wet climate of Somerset is perfect for the orchards and pastures that are the lifeblood of our area, they are also perfect conditions for the yeasts, bugs and critters that we need to make a unique sour beer.
Somerset Wild is a beer that shows how much we love working with our environment and the seasons to produce idiosyncratic beers that leave you questioning your perceptions. A beer with the acidity levels of a white wine or farmhouse cider, with a depth, complexity and refreshing drinkability to it that makes it a wonderful beer to pair with food.
This is a magic beer to enjoy with fish, particularly oily fish such as mackerel or sardines, caught off the south-west coast, or even better why not try it with a ceviche. The acidity of the beer will work as the perfect accompaniment.
What could therefore go wrong with that? Apart from the not having the fish thing?
Forewarned that these might be well carbonated I hesitated….
This one has a much deeper danker aroma on opening than the ‘sourdough’, does not smell sour.
Crystal clear pour that goes all cloudy when you pour the whole thing, except this time I god the wisp of a head.
Aroma is of ‘sour’
Goodness this is sour with some tastes in there, and I’m not really sure what they are of. I’m thinking bananas, or perhaps sour milk, or perhaps something else.
Some people have found the aroma off-putting and the taste just odd, I don’t have a aroma thing, but the palate is definitely odd, unusual and a little cruel.
I find myself having a hard time trying to enjoy it, although conversely I’m not hating it. The sourness has nipped the sides of my tongue, that really is a bit odd too.
I wish I could put a name to the taste that seems to be the strongest one, I know it, just can’t name it. For sure this is the oddest tasting beer I’ve had for a long while.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 of its things from the thing. It really is frowningly difficult to enjoy this when there are tastes that are just out of reach of identification, given that it also happening under a blanket of sour that is washing the tongue and dancing up the tastebuds into submission.
Palate cleanser? yes, palate refresher not so much, quenching? not so much either. I find myself trying to hustle though it in the best controlled facial expression I can manage.
The double dip review
- Am I enjoying it? It presented a number of challenges.
- Would I have another? I don’t think that you could add me to the fan list, so no.
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? These are such individual beers that I don’t think sharing them over a discussion is a thing, this isn’t a low ABV beer (it’s not high either) so it’s a serious beer that adds alcohol into your body, I don’t know that concentrating on trying to figure out the tastes, if you like them, and what were you thinking are conducive to a conversation.
From 2007 I’m listening to “The National” and their album “The boxer”, you can listen here on Spotify or all the other places probably.
The National is an American indie rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is the track “Fake Empire”
SOUR/WILD ALE
Sour ale is a broad spectrum of wild ales, from the fruity and acetic Flanders Red Ales and Oud Bruins, to the experimental ales gaining popularity in the United States which use lactobacillus, brettanomyces and pediococcus in new and wild ways.
A life just as ordinary 