La Sirène & Backhearts & Sparrows Biere Du Hearts

There’s much about the urban farmhouse brewers at La Sirène and the good booze retailers at Blackhearts & Sparrows that makes them feel like fellow travellers. The former’s Costa Nikias is a winemaker turned barrel-beer brewer, while the latter might have started out as a wine store but focuses just as sharply on beer. It means the two coming together to make a beer feels a little inevitable and the product of that affinity couldn't be much more fitting, given the shared love both have for mixing traditional styles with modern leanings.

Biere Du Hearts is a three-year-old wild ale with additional tropical fruits, with the beer inspired by a classic grisette, although that European style has been truly transported to Australia thanks to the mango and pineapple from Queensland and Victorian-grown passionfruit. That summer fruit quite clearly leads the charge too, with tart mango, pineapple and richer passionfruit juice joining other fruit flavours of underripe peach and white grape. Tying it all together is an earthy funk and acidity that means Biere Du Hearts, at its heart, is a refreshing farmhouse beer for the end of a long day in the sun.

Will Ziebell

Published January 25, 2022 2022-01-25 00:00:00