We are very excited to announce that Common Ground Autumn Ale: Harvest 2020 will be available online and for take-away/collection from 12pm (AEST) on Thursday 6 April 2023.
Whoo whoo! These beers are fun. Pretty out there, pretty scarce... damn right tough to make too. The third edition in our ongoing collaborative project with Dane and Hannah of Momento Mori wines. These beers are made without the addition of our house culture and instead see uninoculated wort pitched on top of fermented, macerated, pressed grape skins from the making of their wines.
This ale was made in 2020 with the skins of Greco grapes which spent 10 months macerating to make MM's 'Give up the Ghost' 2020. After the skins were lightly pressed and sent to us, we pitched our Gold wort on top of them and allowed the yeast (which was somewhat surprisingly still active after all that time) to commence and complete the beer fermentation. The beer and skins soaked together for 8 months before bottling in June 2021 and conditioning for nearly two years before release.
Dane has always preferred our beer with a decent amount of age on it. If you'd had the pleasure to visit them out there, you might find a cellar of Wildflower that rivals mine. He certainly knows how to put something away for future enjoyment.
We first met Hannah and Dane in Hobart at Bottletops 2017, geez that was a night... Both of us were quite early days in our respective careers as producers and serendipitously pouring near one another on the night. Benny, myself, Hannah and Dane ended up sitting on the floor of Franklin restaurant sharing stories, forming a relationship (pre kids!) and hatching a plan to work together.
Over the next 18 months we spoke back and forth about what would be a meaningful confluence of our practices that not only displayed what we were both about independently but also melded them, elevated them to something better than the sum of their parts. We settled on an idea of transporting post-macerated, lightly pressed skins of Dane's grapes to Wildflower and introducing an unfermented, uninoculated wort to them in order to allow for the microflora from the grapes to come back to life and commence/continue/complete a fermentation on the beer wort without the addition of our house culture at all.
So these 'Common Ground' beers are genuinely a place where both of our practices meet, uninoculated grapes to make wine, lightly pressed post maceration sent to us in order to recommence that native ferment on wort soaking up the flavour/phenolics left in the grapes and showcase the flavours from the wine microflora.
Meesh's tasting notes - Pours a light straw, with aromas of melon, peach and pineapple bursting out of the glass. Salinity is present on the nose alongside a bright vinous note. It is round and full on the palate, with direct acidity and a moreish grippy, salty finish. There's a note of skinsy spiciness there as well. Overall it's bringing the pineapple juice vibes. Grab the oysters.
Like all our beers, Common Ground Autumn Ale: Harvest 2020 is best enjoyed when decanted off a settled natural yeast sediment at cellar temperatures (10-12°C).
Please see the specific product page for bottle quantities and limits.
Enjoy.
