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.