Moon Dog / Kissmeyer Nordic Saddle Buffer

In the year or so since he was in Australia to judge at the 2012 Australian International Beer Awards and brew with a number of local brewers, we've come to understand well the modus operandi of Danish gypsy brewer Anders Kissmeyer when it comes to collaborations. He rocks up, turns on his laptop and smokes rollies and pipes all day and a few weeks or months later a beer appears. Thankfully, it would appear the Master Brewer has such skills that even by his mere presence in a brewery some pretty interesting beers appear. Who knows, perhaps it's ESP or the fact that he has so much brewing knowledge that it seeps out of him and into the host brewers by some form of brain osmosis? How else to explain the appearance of such tasty numbers as the Gnaume he brewed with Red Duck? Last cab off the rank (at least we assume it's the last) is the Nordic Saddle Buffer that was created with Moon Dog. Described as a barrelly wine (presumably because it's a barleywine that's spent a long, long, long time in former Shiraz and Pinot Noir barrels) it's a rather large (14.6%) and rather murky looking beast. But within its boozy, forboding depths lurks much of interest: sweetness, fruitiness, wininess, warming booziness, all coming together rather nicely. Proof that good things do come to those that wait - and those that spend their entire lives emailing and smoking, it seems.

Published June 4, 2013 2013-06-04 00:00:00