Maud
Fair Isle Brewing

Pours a solid orange with a nearly clear transparency, with translucency obscured by a very light fog. Transparency drops to a full haze as the last ounces are poured from the bottle to the glass. Head is two fingers of off-white foam out of this August 2020 vintage (served / consumed August 2024.) Aroma is grapes, green apple, peppercorn, stone, grass, and bready, biscuity malts. There is a very mild tartness to the nose. Flavor profile is green grapes, green apple, stone, grass, herbal hops, and bready, biscuity, and nutty malts, with those malts being in descending order of strongest to weakest. There is a very mild saltiness that becomes a little more apparent at the finish. Tartness is very mild, crescendo to a dull peak right at the end. Acidity is also mild. Mouth feel is medium-thin in consistency with a broken, off-set effervescence. It starts sharp, but quickly cuts away. Overall, a very intriguing beer with some notes that a pretty unique within the beer world.

Served in a 15.5oz Spiegaleu tulip from a 12.7oz bottle. Batch no. 1. August 2020 bottle date, consumed / reviewed August 2024. ABV of 4.5%.

 

 

Clear, amber colored body; nice carbonation; thin yet last head, semi-creamy in appearance. Excellent citrus and herbal smell; anise. Light fruitiness to the taste with a bold lemon undercurrent; mild bread-like note; light acidity; medium body; soft and spongy on the palate; mild juiciness offset with a dry tartness.

This seems like a nice cross between a light sour ale and a farmhouse saison. The balance in the taste and mouthfeel are very nice. Light and refreshing.

Poured at 47 °F; BATCH NO. ONE BOTTLED: AUGUST 2020

this is my first ever kvass, so I'm honestly not totally even sure what to expect. Bottle says it was bottled August 2020, so just about a year ago. No idea what the lifespan of this should be, but I have had it in the fridge for a couple of months until now.

Pour's a mostly clear golden yellow, the colour of apple juice. Fairly lively effervescence, leading to an initial swell of thin white bubbles that pile maaaaybe a finger high, but recede completely almost immediately. No lacing.

Nose is a little bit sweet and a little bit tart/wild. Some green apple and a touch of champagne grape and lemon. Bright aromas throughout. Digging around I can find some berry and bread dough as well, though I always wonder how much of that is pure, and how much is primed by knowing what it says on the label. As it warms the dough I think becomes more pronounced.

Flavour is actually quite interesting, if somewhat muted. Tart berries a touch of lemon, and sure enough a hint of salinity come together over a canvas that's less bread per se so much as it is kind of salty flour, which makes it sound so much less appealing than it actually is. There's a ribbon of something that's actually kind of rich running along the back third but I can't quite identify.

It's tart, and somehow both easy drinking and slows you down and forces you to take your time, because too much too fast and it starts to build on itself and get to be a little much. A very interesting one, and I'm excited to be able to add kvass to my ticks, and will seek out others to continue to understand the style better, but if I didn't know it from the label, I could see this being lumped in as a uniquely interesting take on the umbrella wild/saison/farmhouse type
categories.
It's also one that I think probably deserves a higher rating than it is going to receive/one that is self-limited by style. I don't really feel that any of the individual levers warrant adjustment on their own, but not all 3.75s are created equal!

 

750 mL bottle. Pours orange and slightly cloudy. Smells of bread, light lemon acidity, and mineral notes. Tastes of salty bread up front with a light lemon tang. Quite a strong mineral character. Medium light. Easy drinking. Simple profile, but pretty good.