Sometimes it pays to be a little self-indulgent and Us is certainly a masterclass in brewing something for yourself without worrying too much about what the world will think. The collaboration between Hop Nation and Wildflower was born out of shared conversations about Guinness and more specifically, how the dry Irish stout might have been made historically. Although it’s a recipe that even today isn’t exactly yelled from the rooftops, Dunc from Hop Nation and Topher from Wildflower looked at how such beers were made in the lead-up to World War II when brewers would commonly blend something freshly brewed with an aged (and often acidic) beer in a process known as “vatting”.
For their vatted portion of the beer, Topher brought a recent blend of his Amber down to Hop Nation which was then blended with a dry Irish stout they'd brewed together. Take a look at the beer and you would likely assume it’s a stout like any other, which a touch of reddy brown escaping from the otherwise jet black beer. On the palate, there’s plenty of coffee and roasted bitterness to be found too by the point of difference is a layer of funk that’s a little tart and adds a lasting acidic complexity to a beer that's a little like a classic Flanders red ale.
Sure Us might just have been made for Them but is quite a joy for the modern beer nerd to explore - and forunately, that's Us.
Will Ziebell
Published April 30, 2024 2024-04-30 00:00:00
