Rhus Jus
Little Beast Brewing

another delicious and unique wild beer in this little bottle cork and cage format. this one is done with sumac, elderflower, and elderberry, really different and interesting stuff, but still a bit young tasting to me, not as well devleoped on the fermentation side as their best beers ive had, but something well worth picking up still, and sure to evolve well in the bottle. its blonde beer with a little haze, not as much head and life overall as i like in the style, but an appealing aroma of tart floral sumac, which really is recognizable, and some light lemon and honeysuckle sort of botanical character, piquant, more bacterial than funky this time around, and a little newish brett as well. the flavor is awesome, juicy and bright, piquant with the sumac, fancy with the elderflower, slightly medicinal with the berry, a little acetic as it warms, and there is some of that cereal dust thing in the finish i get from immature wild beer often times. i love the sumac and the elder elements together, a really thoughtful and intelligent combination of ingredients that make this beer truly unique and exciting. unfortunately, the base beer and the fermentation profile leave a little to be desired this time, i wish i had aged this awhile, but the only way to know that is to drink one! ill revisit this for sure, i still really dug it, but a little more funk and dryness would make this amazing. some more bubbles would help too. overall this is delicious now, but seems primed for ageing well. sumac is a natural fit with sour beer, id like to see more of that sort of thing. props to these guys for something real creative, nice piece of terroir in the bottle here!