“This beer is very unique and inspired by breweries in the Lambic region of Belgium and, especially, our friends at Cantillon. It is 100% spontaneously fermented, meaning yeast is not added. Once the beer is brewed, it is transferred to a cool-ship or “horny” tank located in our barrel room at the pub. There it sits overnight and collects whatever funky wild yeast and bacteria may be living in the room. The next day it is transferred to oak wine barrels where it ferments wildly and ages for a few months. The end result is a wild, spontaneously fermented, sour, and tasty hand-crafted beer!”

Glassware: Teku.

Appearance: Light golden yellow with a wispy white head which quickly retreats to the rim. Minimal lace as we go.

Aroma: Phenomenal. Our biggest concern is which scent to start with! The beautiful fusion of sour apple, pear, candied lemon and white grapes is just superb. A hint of unripened white peach coming through too. Funktastic notes of freshly drained wine barrels, musty-ness, farmyard grains, wet hay/straw, mild peppery spice and manky cheese cave. Absolutely brilliant.

Flavour: Quite dry and musty, chock-full of acetic citrus (lemon, grapefruit, rind), dry white wine, damp oak and grassy/wet hay. We’re even picking up a flutter of clean and herbal pine. Very mild touch of white wine vinegar, earthy spice and wheat grains roll in to a dry, oaky, piney and citric finish which really goes the distance.

Mouthfeel: Certainly a dry texture to it. Crisp, mild-moderate body and Co2. Fairly acidic…the pucker rating gets a 3/5. 6% ABV is well behaved.

Overall: Look, it’s a bloody ripper of a sour but we can’t see why the hype around it. Consecration and Damnation just to name a couple would have to outrank it in our opinion. Still a very good “Sonambic” as it’s cleverly named. Solid.