There must never be a dull moment at Hop Nation, with the brewers, winemakers and distillers constantly reaching across booze categories for new releases. MTK is a collaboration with Byrdi; the Melbourne cocktail bar that creates many of their own cocktail ingredients from scratch through fermentation, smoking and other means. The beer's name refers to its three hero ingredients of mango, tamarind and koji which were added to a blend of three blonde ales. The koji was created in-house by Byrdi and while you might not be used to drinking it in beer, you'll certainly be used to it in food, with the culture behind the likes of soy sauce, mirin, miso and other delicious Japanese ingredients and dishes.
The resulting beer is a complex and entirely unique sour beer that includes a sweet, ripe and fleshy mango flavour, further notes of tropical fruit and a citrusy and tart tang from the tamarind. But it's not just sourness and fruit at play, with the koji adding layers of umami that balance out MTK's more ripe and acidic edges and make it a you could quite possible pair with any main course and impress your dinner guests.
Will Ziebell
Published June 28, 2022 2022-06-28 00:00:00