Beer – #1042 – Garage Project – Muse Au Naturel
Garage Project Muse Au Naturel, where I find myself on that unfathomable quest as to why I do or don’t like Sour beers.
in its natural state
Muse is in a 330ml bottle, and has an ABV of 5.1%, this is around 153 calories a serve size, this is 1.3 standard drinks in NZ
Garage Project Muse Au Naturel is brewed in the style that is a Sour/Wild Beer unsurprisingly it is brewed by Garage Project who are in Wellington, New Zealand
I do have more than one warm top to wear honest
Muse: Au Naturel – our Wild Workshop ‘house sour’, a pristine blank canvas that invites creative possibilities. Fermented with Lactobacillus and our own saison blend, and conditioned in oak barrels,
Muse is a complex but refreshingly drinkable sour with a soft acidity and citrus aroma
Beautiful as it is in its natural state, or as the base for other Workshop releases exploring fruit & flavour infusions.
Bottled inspiration
“Brewers make the wort and yeast makes the beer”. Yeast is all around us and different strains can radically effect the flavour of a beer. There are all manner of wild yeast varieties floating around the Wild Workshop which can make magic tasting beers but would infect and ‘ruin’ everything in a traditional brewery. Muse has a very simple malt base which was fermented with Garage Project’s saison blend and Lactobacillus and aged in oak barrels. Lactobacillus is a bacteria which produces sour lactic acid. Muse serves as the marvellously complex yet drinkable tart, sour canvas to which Garage Project are building a whole series of beers on. Each iteration of Muse is made with different additions. The infusion of dry hibiscus gives this iteration of Muse striking colour, aroma and flavour. The freshly zested lemon peel makes for a long dry zesty finish.
So, What could possibly go wrong?
Sour aroma, like you should expect, cider like, again nothing unusual.
A beer that is a lot paler than I thought it was going to be, almost clear, this has just the hint of pale yellow, and could easy be a cider.
Settles into the glass as a musty aroma’d thing with lots of carbonation but no head.
It’s not quite pucker up sour but it is quite tart, and it is completely gorgeous. There’s this lovely quite soft carry in this that presses down that sourness until the last possible moment when you get a full mouth explosion.
That explosion at the back is squinty puckering brilliant.
Let me reming you that I don’t like sour beers, and yet I’d put this on the side of the ledger where you’d find the sour beers that I do like.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 of its things from the thing. I’m honestly not a fan of sour beer, I get them, I appreciate them, and I infrequently enjoy them, this is one that this on the side of the good sour beers that I’ve rather enjoyed. Light sourness initially that explodes at that back with a puckering goodness that is most entertaining.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? Liquorland in Forrest Hill, although they should be in good places.
- Am I enjoying it? I am !
- Would I have another? I have the 2nd variation in the fridge, what could go wrong?
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Yes, this should be a beer that sets the bar or benchmarks for what should be what Sour is all about, not that dry sherbet stuff, but a properly balanced enjoyment of a beer that surprises.
Music for this: Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (Deluxe Edition) by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats on the Spotify player
Nathaniel David Rateliff is an American singer and songwriter based in Denver, whose influences are described as folk, Americana and vintage rhythm & blues. Rateliff has garnered attention with Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, the soulful R&B combo he formed in 2013.
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 