St Thomas 2023: Cherry

St Thomas is an Australian Wild Ale made with cherries. It is named for Chris and Emily’s first son.   

St Thomas is a golden barrel aged ale wholly fermented by a diversity of yeasts and bacteria collected from native flowers in NSW refermented with cherries, named for Chris and Emily’s first son.

This is the first year of St Thomas having a golden base instead of our Amber. We made the decision to switch after multiple years of concurrent tests between golden and amber bases on cherry beers between St Thomas and 'Rose Gold', a cherry beer made for our internal membership group The Collective. We have found, in the end, the fruit character to carry brighter with the golden base and especially over time see the marzipan character from the pits into the future. As I love grower champagne, the extended almond-like pit maceration on Gold won out in the end...

In 2023, St Thomas was made by blending barrel aged golden mixed culture fermentation ale with 650kg of fresh, whole, handpicked, tree ripened Morello sour cherries from Thornbrook Orchard in Nashdale, NSW. After a 7.5 month maceration and refermentation of fruit and beer, it was bottled and allowed to naturally carbonate and mature before release.

Meesh's tasting notes The nose is marzipan and cherry stone. So much fruit and complexity on the palate. Earthy cherry meets a bright acidity which leaves you with a lingering sweetness. Christmas in a glass.

Label art by Bernadette.

Ingredients: Foraged wild yeast, naturally occurring souring bacteria, malted Schooner barley*, raw red Beaufort wheat*, hops* and cherries. *Indicates certified organically grown. Indicates a product of New South Wales.

Bottled: Aug 2023

Best Before: Aug 2026

100 bottles available online.

FOR FULL PRODUCTION AND TASTING NOTES, PLEASE SEE OUR CORRESPONDING BLOG POST.