In our most recent back and forth with Scott Wilson-Browne, head brewer at Red Duck, he revealed that he has more than 60 beers available for tasting at his forthcoming All In events as part of this year's Good Beer Week. Sixty-plus of his own beers, that isâ?¦ Little wonder, then, that this month there is not one, not even two, but three limited release beers coming out in bottle at the same time. Among them is Groak, a Barrel Aged Golden Gruit Ale, with gruit beers being those that traditionally used various mixes of herbs and spices for flavouring in the days before hops were on the scene. For this latest gruit style beer, Scott placed a portion of his Gruitiest, a tart release from last year that featured yarrow, wormwood, mugwort, dandelion leaf, sweet dried orange peel, lemon balm, elderflowers, hibiscus flowers and hawthorn berries, in oak for six months. The result, he says, is "Complex herbal and floral notes with some sourness." Also new to market is the Ginger Frog, another barrel aged beer, this time based on the French farmhouse ale style, Biere de Garde, but given added zing thanks to the addition of fresh ginger. Last of this trilogy ' and certainly not least, particularly if you are a fan of sour beers ' is Sour Chips. Like the others, it is barrel aged and described as "an extreme expression of a dark, sour and smokey beer". From a distance, it looks like a brown ale or light porter with a faint head that appears slowly like fractals on its surface. Its lactic sourness hits first, followed up by a roasty, woody smoke and a touch of Coca-Cola in the aroma too. It has a fairly viscous, oily body, is distinctly sour upfront but then leaves the impression that a bunch of tiny people have held a tiny campfire party in your mouth. It's a little reminiscent of the first ever gruit beer from Red Duck, Canute the Gruit, but fuller in body.
Sample all these and more at All In #2 and #3 during Good Beer Week.
Published April 30, 2014 2014-04-30 00:00:00
