Style: Berried Sour Ale
ABV: 5.0% %
Availability: Archived
Melba is on tap. Yay! This is named after legendary Australian operatic soprano, Nellie Melba, who could belt out a few great tunes back in the day. She was so good that she even had a dessert, Peach Melba named after here by French chef legend, Auguste Escoffier!
So based on that little titbit of knowledge, I went about creating an all NZ fruit beery version of the dessert with a nice tart twist. Instead of the classic peach, raspberry and vanilla, this one combines raspberries, nectarines, peaches and apricots in a kettle-soured base beer fermented with a Belgian yeast strain. 154 kg of fruit went into 1100 litres of delicious wort… that’s a lot of stonefruit and berries!
Melba – Stonefruit and Raspberry Belgian Sour Ale
AbV – 5%
Bitterness – Very, very low!
Malt – American Ale, Sour Grapes, Wheat, Rolled oats, Oat hulls
Hops – Aged Falconer’s Flight (2012)
Yeast – Fermentis BE-256 (Belgian strain)
Other – Fermentis SafSour, pureed raspberries, peaches, apricots and nectarines
Aroma – Subtle hints of caramel and vanilla with a solid whack of berry fruit and tart peaches.
Flavour – Raspberry and stone-fruit throughout with a soft tartness from the fruit acids and lactic acid bacteria. Back-palate sweetness with a rounded, medium mouthfeel.
Appearance – Bright and clear with a pink/orange hue reminiscent of a rosé wine. A subtle pale pink head upon pouring.