Divine Manchu
Young Henry's

Pours a gold/amber colour, just slightly cloudy (was expecting more, potentially). Foamy white head sticks around OK. Not bad.

Smells savoury, spicy, saucy. HP sauce and barbecue sauce in there, with a big belt of tomato. Spicy; savoury. Unique.

Taste is similar with a touch of tartness as well. Apple cider notes with a touch of vinegar. More of that tomato note, both sweet ketchup and underripe fresh tomato on there, umami notes and a touch of salt. Errrm... weird.

Body feels a little light, but I think it would really make this a challenge if this flavour resembled the texture of sauce at all, so I'm grateful it's light.

A distinctly odd one. Will be a challenge to pretty much everyone, but it's growing on me. good on Adamson for trying something so completely whack.

 

How to even start on this beer? 1.5% ABV Kombucha beer, fermented with a traditional Kombucha SCOBY (a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). I had no idea at all what to expect, and still this beer was way off what very faint expectations I might have had. Tried on-tap at the 2013 GABS festival in Melbourne.

Pours innocuously enough: a hazy golden colour with a solid hazing. Head forms a white, ringed crest, quite fine. Some lacing and lots of carbonation. Looks good.

Now it gets weird. Sweet and sour. Tomato ketchup. Brown Sauce. BBQ sauce. Smoky, funky, sickly sweet and piquant. And yet utterly captivating. "What the fuck is this?" I say, and can't stop myself going in for another sniff, and another, and another.

And it continues: spicy entry on the palate, pepper (where did that come from?), acid, more ketchup and malt vinegar. And now another direction? Smoky, burnt tea, Lapsang Souchong. And again, now it's savoury and dry. More HP sauce? Onion? Pepper? Where will this go next? It is *so* extremely bizarre—like out of the realms of anything I've ever tried.

I do believe that this is the most bizarre beer I've ever sampled. I can see how people would hate this—worse even, I can see people creating religions dedicated to the destruction of this abomination. But all it takes is a little acceptance and you can completely embrace this bizarre, misshapen monster. Utterly, utterly unique and outstanding. This was no doubt one of my highlights of the festival.