Roswell: MJ12
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales

 

500ml bottle - dated June 2019 - poured into a large red wine stem at 50°F.

Pours an intense black raspberry burgundy red - turbid - topped with a finger of quick magenta head that reduces to a loose collar. Very pretty.

Nose: Intense blackberry puree, and intense, complex funk. You can smell the blackberry a mile away, but when you get in the glass, this thing really turns into lambic. Heavy phenolic bandaid, iodine, seaweed, piperine, oak, hay, dried grass, horse blanket, stable, and yes, even fresh manure. This is genuine Belgian-style funk, and it runs very deep. On top of all these notes of course is just an explosion of purely jammy blackberry, blueberry, black raspberry, and all the seedy notes along with it. Truly spectacular.

Palate: This thing was so jammy on the nose, the sourness really surprised me. Interestingly enough, the sourness is almost purely lactobacillus. Tangy, tart lacto with just an insane amount of minerality - so much so, it leaves your mouth tasting like it's full of blood! Lacto tang, sour seedy blackberry, a little bit of oak, and lots of funk. The blackberry has zero sweetness, and I detect no malt whatsoever, therefore, this is just about the driest ale I've ever had. It is sour, but not puckering. There's more minerality than pucker, but I can immediately feel the acid in my stomach which never happens. The bacterial funk is just off the chart, and very different to describe. The blackberry disappears quickly, due to the fact that there's zero fruit sweetness to identify it, so you're left with berry seeds that lead towards a finish with subtle hints of goat cheese, white mushroom, stone, clay, and as I said before, blood. This lingering, clingy iron minerality. Quite interesting.

Mouthfeel/Body: With no real sweetness or malt to speak of, it isn't a heavy ale, but it also isn't light or watery either. Due to the sheer complexity, funk, and high level of acidity, it's actually quite a sipper. Effervescence is squarely medium, quite fine and fizzy, and there's actually a little bit of a creamy coating sensation in the finish. No resins or bite, but the acidity is present.

Overall: Wow, what a weird one. In many ways, this is truly lambic-like. Let me say that the aroma is to die for. Just an incredible explosion of saturated jammy fruit and intense funk. Normally, I complain about sours being too sweet, but I actually want some more fruit sugars in here. The lactobacillus just takes control, and I feel like with just a touch of jammy fruit flavour, this could be out of this world - like it's namesake. Without that, it's as dry as seltzer, and that blackberry just doesn't translate. Nevertheless, it's unique, and there's certainly some complexity to it, but I just wish there was something to make that fruit pop, even just some malt sweetness. If you like crazy intense fruit lambic with lots of fruit but no sweetness, then track this down.