If you attended any of Molly Rose's Good Beer Week 2021 events, there's a good chance you'll have met Mini Tom, the latest iteration of the strawberry sour series that started out as Sour Tom and dates from the time Molly Rose founder Nic Sandery and Tom O'Reilly, now head brewer at Loophole in SA, were working together at Stone & Wood. Once again, this release is a strawberry sour, and while its 4 percent ABV puts in the realm of "mini" there's little mini about its character. It pours with a deep peach, almost pink hue, with a sparkling, fast-dissipating head. The soft, tangy fruit character melds with a sourness that's pretty potent for a session beer, and a grassy earthiness that makes the experience like crunching into a just-about-ripe berry pulled from a plant at your feet.
Followers of the Collingwood brewery will know Nic loves to brew with peaches, which is the case again with Peach! (who'd have thunk?!?). The second in their artist series, the label this time comes courtesy of Melbourne muralist Juzpop, with the liquid the end game of a process which started out with a couple of barrels of mixed ferment beer that were loaded up with peaches before blending. It sits pretty much smack bang in the centre of the spectrum of fruit sours from Molly Rose: peachy, spritzy, gently acidic, dry and as refreshing as you could wish for.
James Smith
Published May 31, 2021 2021-05-31 00:00:00
