There are few breweries who can teach you as much as La Sirène. The formerly Alphington, now Reservoir operation has not only ploughed an idiosyncratic farmhouse-inspired furrow for close to a decade-and-a-half, eschewing pretty much every hype trend in beer as they've come and gone, but has also been eager to explore many avenues when it comes to making beer: barrel-ageing and blending; spontaneous fermentations; collaborating with producers outside the world of beer; and plenty more besides.
With Battonage Peach, a beer they first poured for attendees at Blobfish 2024, they reunited with winemaker Mac Forbes, with whom they released double-header Beer With Mac and On The Vine in March. This time around, they used chardonnay lees, as opposed to juice or skins, in the making of the beer, combining the lees (deposits of residual yeast) with a simple wild ale in Burgundian oak barrels for 12 months and emploing the bâtonnage method. In simple terms, this means they periodically stirred the lees through the liquid over that 12 months; the reason for doing so is to add texture and a brioche character to the finished product. Before it was finished, the brewers also added whole peaches (hence the name).
Pouring pale and slightly hazy, the last of those additions creates a lively peachy top note, underpinned by plenty of funk and an aroma that – after going back again and again and again to make sure I wasn't mistaken – is very much akin to dried mushrooms. The funk on the nose, and past experience with some of La Sirène's fruited wild ales, had me thinking my palate was in for a good puckering too but no: the beer is rather softer and rounder than expected, presumably the result of the bâtonnage process. Instead, fuzzy peach flavours mingle with a distinct and crunchy yet balanced acidity, one that lingers but with grace.
James Smith
Published October 7, 2024 2024-10-07 00:00:00
