The Amuse-ing Monk Kim Chi Saison
The Monk Brewery & Kitchen

This was a collaboration between The Monk and Restaurant Amuse in Perth, brewed for and served at the Beer Mimics Food event at Sydney Craft Beer Week. This was a somewhat ill-advised Kim Chi saison, Kim Chi being a Korean dish of fermented cabbage in a spicy chilli paste.

Pours a burnt yellow colour, solidly hazed but light in the body. Head is a bubbly ring of white that stays rather thin across the top of the glass. Looks okay, no better though.

And from here, it's all downhill. Nose is, quite honestly, revolting. Sauerkraut, stewed pongy cabbage rotting sweetness. It smells like a rubbish bin. Worse: it smells like a rubbish bin that's been sitting in the hot sun for a while. Awful.

Taste is just as bad. Fermented garbage water, slightly salty, more of that pongy off cabbage. There's a bit of spiciness on the back, but you can't bear waiting for it to arrive though. Aftertaste is raw and foul.

I don't care. I want not to put it in my mouth any more. This was a big, misguided failure as far as I was concerned. No beer should taste like this. Kim Chi doesn't taste like this. This was quite seriously undrinkable. A woefully awry experiment.