I have a confession to make. Over the years, here at The Crafty Pint we've done our best to make sure we sample the new releases we write about before we post about them. It's a task that's become easier as more beers have been packaged, even if the timeliness of our posts still depends on both brewery and the postal / courier service. In the case of the Blobfish Saison, timing was spot on: a bottle of the beer arrived at Crafty Towers the day before release to the public and, yet, it remains unopened as I type these words.
Readers, we have failed you. Although it's with good reason...
In the absence of a Blobfish festival this year – it was Australia's first dedicated to wild, sour and mixed ferment beers when it debuted in 2019 – the Hop Nation team opted for a couple of alternatives to ease fans' pain. One is the release of a limited number of mixed cases featuring some desirable funky numbers; the other is the release of 150 bottles of a saison created with a combination of house cultures from the festival brewers. And there's more: the beer came to life in ex-chardonnay barrels to which were also added organic Friulano grape skins from Quealy Winemakers that had previously been ageing in amphora for eight months. If you're a beer collector on the hunt for something rare...
There are 150 of the magnums and even fewer of the mixed packs going on sale at midday today (September 8), with the latter containing:
- Site FP: 2019 Lapin Cherry Sour
- Wildflower: St Thomas Cherry Wild Ale 2020
- Future Mountain: A Million Stars
- Sailors Grave: Original Sin Snakebite
- Dollar Bill: Winter Parlay 2020
- Beer Farm: Asam Boi Gose
- La Sirène: Passiflora
- Boatrocker: Flanders Red
- Blobfish Rastal glass
- 2 Blobfish face masks
As for the magnum of Saison so kindly donated by the Blobfish crew, well, we're missing my wife's brother's wedding in the UK this Friday, another victim of the pandemic, so it will be cracked to mark the occasion and further enliven the 41st night under curfew at Crafty Towers. Sláinte!
James Smith
Published September 8, 2020 2020-09-08 00:00:00
