The Barrel Shepherd Blume

The beauty of having dozens of barrels filled with years-in-the-making base beers of subtle complexity on hand means you've got a lovely canvas upon which to paint new pictures. Case in point is The Barrel Shepherd's Blume, a semi-regular release from the Bellambi blenders that uses their delightful French/Belgian saison base as a starting point before adding lemon, cinnamon and aniseed myrtle leaves from a friend’s backyard to a beer aged for 16 months in French oak.

Starting with the last of those, there's oak aplenty – indeed, it shares qualities with an oaked chardonnay. The myrtle additions add citrusy, floral top notes and seem to enliven the saison base. Those citrusy elements are even more prominent to taste with the full body also hosts much in the way of sweet-yet-delicate acid supported by a well-judged carbonation.

James Smith