Mach-Limit (Malbec & Merlot)
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales

 

 

a neat little series of beers, cool that they bottled them and released them together, it sure is fun to drink them at the same time and consider them next to one another, much like atlas and thor. i dont recall seeing an abv on these, which makes the listed 10% abv here seem crazy to me, they sure drink lighter than that, but at the same time this is almost as much a glass of wine as it is a glass of beer, a sweeter red blend with good tannins. i get a lot of the merlot here, not sure what ratio the grapes are added in, but to me its that sweeter, denser, grape profile, with strong notes of prune and blackberry, and it is just a little sweeter than the other blend to me. there is so much grape on this that the wild profile these guys are becoming famous for is a bit obscured, and if you come into this expecting a grapey lambic type ala the italians or cantillon or something, you will be disappointed, but as an expression of colorado (and this is all colorado fruit i am pretty sure), its really enjoyable. no trace of its strength, a lightly candied sweetness to the fruit, a medium body but without much grain flavor at all, maybe a bit of pale wheat rising up, and finally a bacterial astringency that is mouthwatering but not real sour. im sure over time these will evolve beerier, less fruit, drier, more developed funk. for now though these are definitely worth drinking, uniquely fruity and very much a beer wine hybrid. i wanted a little more developed yeast character here, but the fruit aspect is on point...

edit: hitting these again in 2022, four and a half years old, this is still basically flat and more wine than beer, a deeper purple and more distinct wine character than the petit verdot cabernet sauvignon edition, less complex on the yeast side which is fine, also less tart and more woody, the fruit is so deep and intense even at this age, its wonderful. sneaky strong, really pretty well refined, not as funky or lambic-like as hoped for, but still tasting fantastic at this age...