Beer – #1045 – Hallertau – Ingrid Starnes Omega Plum and Rose Hip Sour
A beer with a long name – the Hallertau x Ingrid Starnes Omega Plum & Rose Hip Sour. I had a birthday day our recently and picked this up at the brewery.
juicy plummy goodness
500ml bottle of a beer that is 4.5% ABV, which is around that 135 calories a service size, this is 1.8 standard drinks in NZ
The Hallertau x Ingrid Starnes Omega Plum & Rose Hip Sour is a beer that is in the style that is a Sour / Wild Beer – Flavored, is brewed by Hallertau Brewbar & Restaurant who are in Riverhead, New Zealand
suits you sir!
Designed and brewed in collaboration with Auckland dress maker Ingrid Starnes.
Colour Intense juicy red plum flesh. Rich red plums on the nose, highlighted with delicate rosehip top notes.
Dank earthy hops wrapped in juicy plummy goodness with subtle refreshing acidity
So, What could possibly go wrong?
Aside from my ongoing denial of not liking sour beers not a lot.
A sour beer at the lower end of the aroma scale if that aroma on opening is much to go by.
It’s plum red on pouring and it looks very well carbonated but not so much that a head forms.
Slight mustiness in the glass but not a lot to other notes that I can pick up.
Ok, well, that’s somewhat disappointing to taste too. I’d have thought that there’d have been either a strong sourness from the brewing, or a strong tartness from the plums, with a second note from rosehips that are neither of those things.
I so really wanted to like this beer, and had built up in my head an expectation of at least a presence of pluminess. The beer is insanely attractive and pretty, but I’m here for more than eye-candy (a phrase I use about myself on occasion).
So, the good things; Looks. some sourness.
And on the other side of the coin; lack of any particular familiar or unfamiliar flavour, a lack of sourness.
I don’t not not like it, it’s inoffensive and is in no way difficult drinking, it just doesn’t bring anything to the flavour table other than hints and allegations.
It is at best a competent take on the style of Sour/Wild beer, and I hate it for that because I wanted it to be so much better, and once again I find myself on the wrong side of the ‘do I like sour beers?’ question.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 of its things from the thing. Look I know it’s a beer, I know where it’s brewed, but this is an example of that thing where it’s not possible to like every beer. Whilst it has hints of mustiness and indications of sourness, for me there’s just not enough of anything for this to get past the rather uninspiring ‘meh’. However it’s the prettiest of beers and for that alone it made me smile.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? I brought it at the brewery in Riverhead, but BottleStop beer have hem
- Am I enjoying it? Not at all
- Would I have another? No
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? No, I don’t think that this is a good example of sour or flavoured beer, which is such a shame as it could have been a contender.
Music for this: ”That Low and Lonesome Sound by Garrett Kato on the Spotify Player
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 
Totally not a fan of sours. Glad you’re trying them for me so I don’t have to. 😉
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