Aptos
Fair Isle Brewing

 

batch one, clear glass, another absurd fair isle beer, loving their grape stuff so much, this one a blended saison, one part with grenache blanc and marsanne, the other part a saison rested on syrah pomace, insane. im not sure this is their most refined beer, but i love its rawness too, a little bit of a different side of this brewery, everything always so polished, this one like actually rustic, which is cool. the packaging is sexy, which is always the case with these guys. the beer is pretty dense, murky and a little sedimented, with a faint pinkish lavender hue to it from the grapes, but wheaty and fuller looking too, pours super fizzy and active, tons of carbonation popping. the nose is quite tangy, astringent and tannic from what could be less than ripe fruit, or a super tart crush, lemony, mineral forward, pear and granny smith apple, but then also obvious red fruits too, light sulfur making their house yeast seem especially funky in this iteration, husky and grainy without being sweet too, a bit more malt overall to this, and some raw character there as well, quite sturdy. really neat grape character in the flavor, very well integrated, to me not varietal specific but very vinous overall, almost like some springy white wine was blended right into a hearty saison, lots of grain here but its still dry. notes of blackberry, white florals, and pet nat cider. tart and mouthwatering at the same time, very distinctive, funky in a cool way but still fair isle all the way on the ferment. light sulfur again at the end, some light bitterness maybe from the syrah pomace, i like what that brings. complex beer, warms up well, the dregs are funky, and overall its a cool beer/wine hybrid, very very carbonated which gives it a ton of life. totally unique, very natural wine-esque, yeasty in a way that even their most fermentation forward beers usually arent.