Spontaneous Apricot
Plan Bee Farm Brewery

shout out to my brother for hooking this one up, love plan bee! this is a wild ale with apricots, new york grain, coolship inoculated, oak aged with what must have been some lovely apricots and a fair few of them. this is the 2023 vintage, and its real sour now, but the fruit is still so forward and ripe and pure in it, really lovely beer, delicate to me even with the high acidity, less funky and more sharp than much of the beer ive had from these guys has been, which i suspect is at least in part a product of its age. rusty orange tinted brew with increasing haze as we pour the bottle down, slow and lazy white head, ample carbonation but not crazy effervescent, kind of immediately rustic but in an intentional way, and the aroma fills the room. both fresh and cooked stone fruit to me, apricot and like nectarine both, fuzzy and smooth, juicy and just bitten, but also like preserved in syrup or something like my mom used to do, that aromatic sweetness is there. the grain is mellow, not malty per se, not really wheaty to me either although it probably is, lightly nutty, sweet, balancing against the sharpness, notes of white vinegar and white wine in the ferment, oak tannins, orange marmalade with the apricot, some funk, but its like flanders level sour. the flavor is somewhat more delicate to me, although the pucker is major most of the way, the fruit and grain together are awesome, more cooked to me now, apricot with white wine grapes, orange and tangerine, and even ripe cantaloupe as it warms. light brown sugar, toast, and wood in the middle, lemon juice acid and a a lactic intensity late. its on the palate awhile, burns a touch going down, acetic to a degree, mature in an appealing way too, gorgeous fruit the entire way, really punchy and profound. i think i was hoping this would be slightly more wild, funky, but its so sour that some of that is obscured, still, a really cool bottle. would love to have tried it fresh! killer expression of apricot.