Jump in a time machine and go back to the early days of Aether Brewing, and you’ll find Twisted Vine… but a little bit different.
The year? 2017.
The event? Beer InCider.
The ABV? 8.5 percent.
The passionfruit and blood orange NEIPA was a huge hit at the festival, which led to Aether re-releasing it in cans. But as they did so, they toyed around with the recipe and brought the crowd pleaser down to a more 4-pack friendly ABV - 5.5 percent.
Today’s iteration is more in line with that second version. It opens with lemon sherbet and passionfruit aroma, and from the first sip you notice that while it’s a hazy, it almost drinks like a sour. I suppose 500kg of passionfruit and 150kg of blood orange in a 3000L batch were always bound to bring a hit of acidity.
And so while dry-hopping is obviously a large part of the flavour profile of this beer, it’s the face-whacking tang and tartness that land with a bang and spread quickly, and the blood orange that brings a pithy note to balance any sweetness with a bitter bite. Twisted Vine is tart and tangy and bitter and almost earthy, like people are shoving the freshly harvested fruit directly into your mouth.
Of course, for all the goodness this beer brings, you should expect to hear some people saying: “Back in my day, Twisted Vine was 8.5 percent ABV, which was the style at the time…”
Mick Wüst
Published December 2, 2022 2022-12-02 00:00:00
