Echoes of Summer
Little Earth Project

2020 vintage, looks like this changes a bit from year to year. really funky mixed culture red ale base, done in oak with rasperries, gooseberries, blackberries, and mulberries, impressive stuff, just my second from little earth. the pour is a rusty reddish mahogany color, and very fizzy but not collecting much head for whatever reason, but carbonation is not an issue. the nose is tannic and sharp right away, smells vinous with all the oak character on it, and the fruit seems to bring more acidity than sweetness, tangy and a little gritty to me, puckery and mouthwatering, with raspberry running out in front of the others, even red currant and cranberry notes too, that kind of sourness. the base beer is pretty malty but it doesnt feel heavy, the grain richness balances some of the tart, and adds a nice baked and earthy base layer upon which the rest of this is built. there is a little of that red wine vinegar thing i often get in flanders red types, but some of the acid seems from fruit not from ferment, and there is some neat funk here too along with the bacterial part, farmy and old worldy, actually kind of brought up by the little bit of green glass oxidation that is in here. as it warms more of the fruit comes out, jammy and natural at the same time, some sweetness from the blackberry and tang from the others, very late summery. the low alcohol is cool, especially with this level of flavor complexity, and overall this is very good. more sour than i want to drink a ton of, but really neat offering. seems like little earth is doing some really cool beers!