Our James Smith first wrote up this beer in 2020 after he wondered how long he could spend on the Murray River to escape a Melbourne lockdown. Now in 2022, this beer arrived at my house while I was holidaying on the Murray. How fortuitous that this beer seems to be always made for the wild at heart while the Murray is on the mind.
Now for something that you may actually care about: this 2022 batch of Man-Gose Wild has brought a slightly wilder character than the previous “soft drink for grown-ups” version. Don’t get me wrong - there’s plenty of mango in there, particularly in the almost creamy Weis Bar aroma. And the mouthfeel matches this, with a fruit puree thickness. But the flavour brings a fair amount of farmhouse funk along with the twinge of sour and lick of salt in the back end that gets you salivating. The mango becomes an afterimage - simultaneously there and not there, displaying less intense than in the aroma but still present - while the funk and sour and salt hold your attention. What a wild ride indeed.
When it comes to the Hot Cross Pilsner, I must apologise - Tumut River brought this beer out well in time for Easter, but my aforementioned gallivanting across the country has led to this write-up coming well after Easter. Perhaps this is a balance to the fact that hot cross buns always hit the shops far too early when they have no business lining the shelves in January! (“Okay, time for your nap now, grandpa.”)
But many of us enjoy a glut of those fruit buns in the weeks and months after Easter, so don’t be put off. This beer certainly holds all the smell of a warmed hot cross bun on a crisp April morning; I could absolutely smell the raisins. Take a sip and the spice of Saaz hops joins with a whack of cinnamon, while the dry-as-a-bone body leaves you ready for more. There’s always room for more hot cross buns, right?
Mick Wust
Published April 27, 2022 2022-04-27 00:00:00