Ivy Bells
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales

 

Appearance: Pours a slighty hazy apricot color with a one finger head; splashy lacing

Smell: Very bright with a range of acetic tropical fruit - I can pick out the apricot, guava and blood orange, but the raspberry, pineapple, passionfruit, cherry and grape all blend together into fruit salad

Taste: Acetic and tart, with the blood orange and passionfruit pronounced; the apricot and guava round out, underneath, and I can pick up a bit of cherry in the finish; not much oak and funk as expected

Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate carbonation

Overall: Quite the kitchen sink of fruit flavor here; I really like what Black Project is doing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle. White head. Ruby pink grapefruit color. This is a blend of many different things. It is very fruity. Citrusy. Apricot and raspberry. Melon and herbal notes. A bit sour and acidic.

 

a new wild beer in here that actually got bottled. its got about a million fruits in it, a veritable fruit salad, guava and raspberry and passion fruit and cherry and grape and apricot and others, its out of control. not sure if this is second use fruit or what, but its pretty gnarly, almost too much going on, hard to pick out any one fruit from the lot, its cool that its not sweet, considering how much fruit is happening here, but its muddled and kitchen sinky and confused. i get some passion fruit right away, the tartness is brought out by the sourness of the base beer. i feel like all the black project stuff has been trending more and more acidic lately, and its happening at the expense of some of the native funk that put them on the map in the first place. i am hoping this is just really young, and that it will get better over time, like it hasnt quite come together yet. its not bad, but its not special, and i sure dont feel great about having spent over 20 bucks for a bottle of it, not even sure why i did. it has an almost tomato and carrot profile, all the fruit turns the taste into vegetables somehow, healthy feeling, soupy in a good way, but overly acidic and very little barrel character here at all. not a total miss, its still unique and cool, just not as good as it should be for the price...

edit: just had a cork and capped bottle from 2018, and boy has this one evolved favorably from the experience i had when it was fresh. for one, i get way more funk now, like that element has come alive in the cellar, at least as bretty now as it is acidic, way more complex on the ferment, more spontaneous to me, awesome! the fruit is still all kind of muddled, and i think you can kind of get out of it what you look for, ripe apricot, cherry, wine grape notes, its cohesive in a good way now, seemingly lighter and more refined than it used to be, at least through the first two thirds of the bottle. lots of sediment built up in the bottom now, but whats left above it is wonderful. i am thankful i picked this up, this is a great example of cellar time transforming a beer for the better, and i have to improve some scores here to reflect the mature bottled version of this. drinking wonderfully well at three or so years old now...