The Dance of the Sour Plum Fairy - 750ml

The Dance of the Sour Plum Fairy is an Australian Wild Ale refermented with sour plums.

It mirrors and is released alongside 'The Nutcracker' by working with different varietals of plums (of which there are heaps btw) from Thornbrook Orchard in Orange NSW. Last year for the Collective, I first worked with Angelina plums and loved the soft, but apparent sweetness these fruits lended to the beer. In 2019, we set out to explore this further by testing out some more varietals.

I had never heard of sour plums before Paula offered them to me when I was picking up the others. On their own, they were true to their name... and pretty tart! But underlying that, any maybe accentuated because of the acid, was a really unique flavour. Something more along the lines of quince and green apple, not a sugar sweetness like you get in peaches and other super-sweet fruits. This was more like a honey sweetness, not in taste but in how natural, raw honey gives you a real sweetness rather than an artificial one.

We brought them back to Marrickville, processed them and blended in barrel #1776 an 8 month old Gold barrel from the same batch as the base for The Nutcracker. The two were left to macerate and referment for 3 months before packaging in early June.

The beer has a distinct raspberry aroma, a rich, sweet perfume of plum. It pours with a dark, golden hue and has a broad palate. Like the sugar plum variant, it is delicate, but not as fleshy - with an increased acidity. As it warms, the beer softens and you are left in the glass with sweet smells of the fruit shop in summer.

I'm thinking about this varietal as a potential element of a blend of plums, the acid is so creamy - like a creaming soda and I find that really appealing. The berry nose is interesting too. Very intriguing fruit and beer.