On Saturday 10 February at 1pm (AEDT), we are excited to release online (link) and at our cellar door βeta, a single barrel packaging of barrel 1751. The release day will coincide with a pop-up at the cellar door of the plant-based kitchen Alfies. There are no bookings required and food will be served from 2pm. If you are Sydney based, this promises to be a great day at Wildflower. Here is the link to the Facebook event.
We have named this beer βeta, as a follow on from our first single barrel release in September of 2017, Alpha. This barrel was in reality a disproportionate and non-deliberate blend of Gold and Amber. It came to be as a product of chance, whereby we had a half barrel of Gold that urgently needed to be topped and filled in order to evade acetic acid production, but we only had a fresh batch of Amber on hand. So it was filled with Amber and the two different worts were allowed to age and complete their fermentations in aid to each other. The result was too particular to blend, so we packaged it on its own.
Beta is a intriguing beer. The aromatics begin similar to that of Gold with spice, nectarines and fresh hops, but as the beer opens, they slowly evolve into a ripe red fruit aromatic more similar to Amber. Uniquely, Beta has prominent notes of cinnamon sticks, vanilla and aromatics reminiscent of skin-contact white wines. The palate has a strong, creamy backbone which reminded us something of a vinous element. Among so many other flavours, Beta foremost has notes of earthy spice, blood orange, caramel and nut meal.
One of the reasons we fell in love with this barrel was because of its ongoing and dramatic evolution of flavour as we continued to taste it. Even writing these tasting notes was difficult as the aromatics and palate both changed rapidly with notes going as quickly as they arose. We highly recommend enjoying this beer over an hour or longer, possibly even decanting it and allowing the beer to lose its carbonation. By doing so, you will be able to see the fullness of what made this barrel so unique.
An important thing to note is that we do not believe a similar flavour can be achieved by blending our two beers Gold and Amber together in glass. The unique profile of this beer is a product of their unified fermentation and ageing.
βeta was packaged on 6 December 2017. At bottling it was 5.5% ABV and 1.6°P. Like all our beers, βeta is best enjoyed when decanted off a settled natural yeast sediment at cellar temperatures (10-12°C). We have about 250 bottles available with a bottle limit of 2 bottles per customer. βeta will also be available on tap while the keg lasts. We do not expect this beer will last to be distributed outside of our cellar door and online shop.
