Given it’s called a farmhouse IPA, you could consider No Alibi to be a beer with its feet planted in two camps: one where hops shine and the other where Brettanomyces burns bright. But when you take into account the multitude of methods and diversity of ingredients that went into the beer, you realise this beer covers plenty of bases all at once and, better yet, brings them all together into one glass.
To make it, the blenders used Australian ale and wheat malt from Ballarat’s House of Malt, along with rolled spelt, rye, oats and barley, before hopping the beer in the whirlpool with Motueka and Galaxy. It was then open-fermented with kveik yeast – the Bergen strain to be exact – at 35 degrees to really encourage those esters to the fore, before taking shape inside neutral barrels with multiple different Brett strains for 13 months. The final beer is a blend of two different barrels that Sobremesa founders Casey and Hannah thought would work particularly well together, with the addition of further hops – Amarillo and Galaxy – the final touch.
Aromas of horse blanket courtesy of those Brett strains ensure there's an element of funk, one that's immediately joined by grapefruit and rich, ripe mango and papaya. That tropical combination continues through to taste but is soon joined by further ripeness in the shape of stonefruit and a more acidic lemon citrus character. Although the early hopping rate has provided plenty of bitterness, it remains pretty rounded and soft, while a sprightly carbonation ensures it disappear quickly.
Will Ziebell
Published March 3, 2022 2022-03-03 00:00:00
