Letra Grape Ale Loureiro
Letra - Cerveja Artesanal Minhota

 

Letra Grape Ale Loureiro is a beer made in collaboration with Anselmo Mendes, a winegrower from the region of Vinho Verde in the Northwest of Portugal, using mostly local varieties of white grapes to create wonderful and fruity wines. Specifically, the grape here mentioned - Loureiro - is a variety that has gone almost extinct because of its subtlety, low yield and low sugar contents.

With Anselmo Mendes, the Letra brewery set out to create a Saison using grape must on their beers.

Poured into a Zalto Universalglas - the first beer I've ever poured into my Zalto glassware.

A: Body is yellow to orange with a mild opaqueness, showing a bright, foamy and dense 1 inch thick head.
S: The nose here is quite wonderful with so many fruity notes. The Loureiro grapes bring citric tones of orange, lemon zest, vanilla, guava and the saison yeast gives it another depth with tones of apple and pear and apricot. It's quite a dessert.
T: The taste is not as diverse as the nose as the citric tones are less prone to appear and the lemon zest with the saison yeast profile end up dominating the whole palate but it's still quite a beer with a quite interesting depth.
M: Body is medium. Carbonation is spot on. Bitterness is higher than expected with a medium high. The contact with the grape skins extracted more bitter tones than the ones usually found on regular Saisons. Alcohol, though running at 8% ABV, it's barely unnoticeable.
O: The style here represented - the Portuguese Grape Ale, is something that I'd love around the world. It's quite awesome and beer drinkers should have it at least once.