Wigeon
Fore River Brewing Co.

500ml bottle - no date - poured into a tulip at 44F.

Pours a mostly clear deep sunset orange hue, with a finger of loose bone-white head that settles fairly quickly to a clean, sparkling surface. No head, collar, or lacing, and lots of visible effervescence.

Nose: Faint, clean rustic wheat, beneath a potent, sharp, acidic aroma, leading way to lemon, wine barrel, wet hay, barnyard funk, saddle, honeycomb, peach, dusty brett, and and a touch of pediococcus, giving in to just a hint of vinegar. Quite vinous and sharp, with layered complexity. A deeper inhale reveals some more honey sweetness, and some very delicate hop florals.

Palate: First sip greets the palate with a puckering sourness and acidity. Lots of lemon-like lacto tartness, which then leads into a pedio balsamic sharpness, and a quick flash of wine grape. Dig a little deeper, and some honey floral notes emerge, with just a hint of sweetness. Midway through, the signature wine barrel notes surface, lending a vinous character to it. As the puckering sharpness begins to subside, a hint of buttery oak shows up, and complements the texture of both the wheat and the lacto quite nicely. The finish then comes along, which significantly dials back the sourness, and allows for a quick glimpse of some of the more delocate flavours - primarily the honeycomb, which at this point possesses no sweetness, and more closely resembles the actual beeswax within the honeycomb. The flavour of honey without the sweetness. Finishes completely dry, slightly tannic, and clean, with zero bitterness. A slight pedio acidity remains behind.

Mouthfeel/Body: The beer itself is fairly light bodied, but has a lot of texture to it, giving the illusion of more weight that it has. The wheat gives a subtle creaminess to the feel, as does the lactobacillus, which almost lends a slight coating sensation. It's quite drying, with a tannic feel towards the finish. Puckering, which the palate slowly gets used to. Effervescence is lively and quite fine, giving it an almost champagne-like texture.

Overall: This is an enjoyable wild ale, and one of the more "fancy" offerings from Fore River. It has some nice traits and elements that one would expect from a wild ale, however, I think the sourness is just slightly overbearing, in the sense that it covers up a lot of the nuance and complexity. I'm sure it's there, but when drinking this, it's difficult to focus on anything else. I feel the sharpness works to this beer's detriment, and that it could potentially be a lot better if that was just dialed back a little bit. Nevertheless, it isn't offensive, and it's still an average wild ale through and through. As Fore River gets older and experiments more, perhaps they will refine their barrel program at some point, and unlock that nuance that these beers are so capable of.