Beer #198 - W/C 10 December 2018
BREWERY // Kerrie & Johnny Latta import beers from around the world to Australia and a few years ago they thought it could be fun to start brewing as well. They persuaded Brooks Carretta, a young brewer making waves in the European beer scene with Birra del Borgo, to move from the mountains of Lazio to the beaches of Brookvale, Sydney. Brooks had two conditions "To never be restricted by fashions and trends and to use Australia’s amazing native ingredients". That was in early 2014 and since then we've seen beers made with Wattle Seeds, Lilly Pilly Fruit, Hibiscus Rosella and others aged in grappa barrels as well a collaborations with their mates from across the globe.
Wild Beer Co. started in 2012 with an Englishman (Andrew Cooper), a Californian (Brett Ellis), a Somerset farm and a shared love for wild yeast, barrels and creating flavours that are not restricted to style guidelines. They are as inspired by the Lambic brewers of Belgium as they are by innovative cuisine. They spend a lot of time capturing and cultivating yeast and they are regularly releasing beers infused with ingredients such as candied violet petals, smoked tea and miso. When they got together with Nomad, it was inevitable something wonderful would happen.
BEER // During Andrew Cooper’s travels in Australia for GABS 2017 he stopped at Nomad to make a collaboration beer combining the best of both breweries with a real Australian twist. They started with an amber ale and left it in Australian Shiraz barrels from Mudgee for over a year. Halfway through the barrel ageing they cultured and propagated Somerset grape wild yeast from bottles of Squashed Grape (a beer/wine hybrid from Wild). Big Red is a beer that brings together two brewers from antipodes with flavours of Somerset in the wild yeast harvested from grape skins and the flavours of Mudgee in the Shiraz barrels. It's sour, sweet, vinous and absolutely unique.
BREWERY // Nomad & Wild Beer Co
BEER // Big Red
STYLE // Barrel Aged Amber Ale
ORIGIN // Brookvale
ABV // 7%
TEMPERATURE // Cool. 7-11C
FOOD MATCH // Garlic Turkey Sausage. Roast Duck. Green Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette. Washed Rind Cheese with Fig Jam.
GLASS // Snifter. Wine Glass