Friends In Rural Places
Devil's Club Brewing Company

neat beer, sick packaging, a collaboration with the well hyped black spruce. its a long oak aged funky saison type with wild yeasts, done with some raw wheat, some cherries, and bottle conditioned, my kind of beer! clear blonde look to this through most of the bottle, a little fine sandy sediment at the very bottom, short lived white head, a little less carbonation than the beer seems to want, but not still or anything. bigtime oak and tannins in the nose, heavy white wine to me, some emergent brett, a lemony lactic twang but not super acidic overall, green gooseberry, almost ripe apricot, and some deeply earthy pale wheat all stand out, cherries are impossible to find here, none of that in the aroma at all, subtle florals, even an almost aged hop funky thing to it, dusty and a little oxidized but compelling for its uniqueness overall, mouthwatering. the cherries are similarly light in the flavor, some generic mid palate fruitiness, but cherry is a reach, maybe not many added, maybe so old that their character is all fermented out and broken down, i dont really wish it was more fruity or anything, i like the taste, but that element remains elusive in this, even as it warms. some pine pitch woodsy character, minerals and even soil from the unmalted wheat which also gives it a little lambic essence, nice funk and tart mixture on the ferment, distinctive and fairly mature, and enough oak to make this kind of heavy feeling, grippy at the end, light vanilla from it, green pear, springy white wine. cool beer, you would almost never know its fruited, but i like it anyway. perhaps ever so slightly amateurish, but in that like boundary pushing exciting way, not in a sloppy or uninformed way. like when they make this again i know it will be better. a cool expression of alaskan terroir, and i am fully enthused about these devils club bottles. will definitely look for more when i am back in the state this coming spring, really cool!