Smoko

Smoko is a golden barrel-matured mixed culture ale blended with riesling wine fermented in ex-muscat barrels and fresh bergamot zest from legendary citrus producer Peter Dryden.

It's name actually stems from a short stint I had on a sheep station in 2019. Each day we'd stop for morning tea and even with outside temps pushing the high 30s these shearers would manage to pull out a thermos and have the blackest black tea dosed with an unhealthy amount of sugar. The oddity of the occasion was one thing for me, being a fresh off the boat American kid in Australia (drinking tea in the first place) but the sugar... the hot tea in the heat... I mean that still doesn't pass the pub test for me. Something not right about this.

Bergamot is the main ingredient responsible for Earl Grey tea. It's a rare citrus that retails for over $30/kg making it one of the more/most expensive things we've put in the beer. JP, the chef at Baba's place in Marrickville, introduced me to the idea of it in a beer. Although I immediately got some retro craft beer vibes from a certain Yeastie Boys beer [side bar... I just did a quick google and they are still making beer! including xeRRex... woah.. that's a blast buying that from Liam P at Camperdown Cellars circa 2011].

At any rate, after returning from Belgium last year, my ideas around style have slowly been degrading (cf beers like Spring, to-come Summer and a few others in the pipeline). Not so much that I don't care about style, but more that I don't want style to be in the drivers seat of our beer... lets instead make tasty bevvies with all the resources we have on hand.

So when some friends from a certain legendary-Murrumbateman-based-winery [not Ravensworth this time] offered us a barrel of some rather oddly made wine that didn't end up fitting their blending schedule, I thought it would be fun to blend with this floral, musky bergamot beer to layer the sweetness and acidity of the muscat barrel-fermented riesling with the floral.

Its more beer than wine, but there's plenty of each in there to make matters relatively confusing for you, 7.3% ABV. Enjoy.