It amuses me just how often beers released in the tiniest amounts have taken the longest time to come to fruition, and how they've often undergone the most involved of processes to reach that point. That's typically the case with Sobremesa's beers, given they almost always spend time in barrels before being blended, with Keep Your Worries a fine example of the lengths to which Casey Grieve goes to deliver refined experiences for those in search of them.
It's a collaboration with Kuuracorp, Melbourne-based specialists in pu-erh tea, which is produced in Yunnan, China – the birthplace of tea. We won't go into too much detail as Casey has provided plenty of background here but, essentially, when treated properly this tea will age like wine. What's more, tea sourced from the older trees growing wild in the region can develop unique characteristics over time too.
Here, the tea spent 25 days ageing on a blend of three base beers: a 12-month-old saison fermented in a puncheon; a nine-month-old saison fermented in a barrique; and an eight-week-old saison fermented in stainless. According to Casey, the aim was to provide "a blank canvas" for the tea but, as anyone who's tried his blended saisons will know, even these blank canvases bring plenty to the table, from the subtle complexities of acidity and funk to delicate notes of stonefruit and citrus. Those are present again here, augmented by the pu-erh tea's qualities: earthy, a little herbal, drying and floral, in another delightfully weighted release from the Kensington operation.
James Smith
Published August 29, 2023 2023-08-29 00:00:00
