Montauk
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales

super cool idea for this thing, like super super cool, love the kvass style, thought it was usually rye loaves, not sure if this one is or not, but the wild microbes from foraged plants and fungus, thats especially heady, so i was pumped to try this, have been for a long time, a collaboration with speciation, who i think has ties to black project. this was bottled in april 2018, and i fear i may have waited a little too long to crack it, even if one would expect something like this to age well. i have a homie in michigan with access to speciation and we always talk about getting together to drink beers so i have been saving this for that occasion, which because of covid and life, has just never come around. a shame, but we will get another chance. its not like this has aged poorly, just that it seems collapsed a little bit, like the bread doesnt stand out as fresh or even distinct from the grain in here, which is what i love about the style, and any bread yeast character seems gone. i think i might not have known about the foraged fermenters, was expecting sour speciation or funky black project cultures or wild profiles, or some combination, which probably would have been more robust in the cellar, but the beauty of the wild stuff is you never know! this is very mellow, very light, and still quite good, just not as dynamic from a fermentation standpoint as anticipated. lightly hazy, straw colored, still some fizz to it. nose of bread crusts i guess, white wheat, pils maybe, simple malt, earthy and at this point extremely dry. light funk, not quite bretty, not quite saison, not quite lambic, not quite lacto, its got its own thing going on, mild and intriguing, wet and earthy too, light white wine, rotting wood, and dusty musty basement. the flavor is similar, fermentation driven without a bigger bread profile anymore, assuming there probably was one when this was newer, but i still like it, definite lambic weirdness and wildness to it, a spontaneous vibe, but less familiar and way softer, especially at this age, than most. baking flour, light clover flower and clover honey, perhaps some aged hops, a faint gin note, graham cracker but then dry, with some farmy horsey brett character and just a little citrusy twang to close, all so light feeling and easy down, even without a ton of carbonation after it sits open a few minutes. really clever idea, probably better execution than it seems now, didnt realize this was all foraged yeasts and that it was so low in alcohol, wish i cracked it sooner, but it was fun to have this with a group of friends i rarely see, one who has a big affinity for black project. every one of their bottles we pop now is not replaceable. rip to them. wild and weird this one.