I'm looking forward to seeing where this sour series goes. Already, we've had Into The Forest, I Go, Under The Tropical Sun and Around The Orchard We Roam. How long before we get I've Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts or Whoops! 'Ave A Banana?
For now, however, it's Beneath The Trees We Gather featuring yuzu and plums, although such is the intensity and breadth of their character in combination with the souring bacteria and 7 percent booze, you could claim a few other fruits were in the midst and get away with it. It pours the colour of Aunt Sally's cheeks and, to be honest, could have been put together with a basket filled by her and Wurzel Gummidge as they went sweeping through fields and hedgerows.
There's a sour plum / cherry perfume but also the lively tang of blackberries plucked straight from the brambles. It's a little sticky, with its sugary sweetness coming across like a summer pudding, and the yuzu creates a really distinctive sherbet character that brings back memories of Sherbet Fountains; maybe I should have tried mushing one with the berries growing along the path up the hill and around the corner from the old family house in Gloucester?
Where was I again? Ah yes, beer... The sourness is borderline puckering to ground the stickiness a little in a beer that'll leave you totally bum-swizzled.
James Smith
Published September 2, 2020 2020-09-02 00:00:00
