Longwood Brewery Wild Child Spontaneously Fermented Sour Ale Review

Nanaimo BC’s Longwood Brewery has stared a new series of limited release beers called the Small Batch Series. The first beer, or No. 1 as Longwood puts it, is the Wild Child Spontaneously Fermented Ale, a Sour beer brewed with naturally occurring yeast, raspberries and Cascade Berries for a distinct tartness and funk-factor. From the bottle this beer pours a reddish-amber colour with a thin finger of head that settles quickly and without a trace. The aroma is tart with a distinct, funky sourness. The intensity of the sour tones let just a hint of berry sweetness through at the same time. The flavour too has a sharp sour-funk to it with the sour, yeasty tones engulfing the senses off the bat. Surprisingly though the flavour mellows rather quickly into a rich and deep dried fruit flavour. Notes of dried cherries, prunes and raspberries give a relatively neutral, slightly sweet finish.

This beer took time and dedication to make and is worth giving a go. As Longwood Brewery puts it, “Children have been born and learned to walk in the time it took for this beer to submit to the organisms that created it.”

Alcohol – 7.0%
Size – 650ml
longwoodbeer.com