Wild Beer Co: Yokai (England: Sour Ale: 4.5% ABV)
Visual: Very clear, pale, yellowed color. Thin white head. Still.
Nose: Popcorn. Flour. Peppercorns. Lime cordial. Wet cardboard. Grapes. Slight yeast funk.
Body: Tart. Lime cordial. Lightly sherbety. Light chalk. Warming peppercorn sauce. Mild chilli. White grapes. Slightly oily – eel sashimi. Slight peach.
Finish: Tangy. Slight chalk. Mango. Mild chilli. Lime cordial. Yeasty funk.
Conclusion: This is a hard one to pin down. It is lightly tart, with slight yeast funk that suggest a hint of a Brett yeast kiss, but not more than that. It brings tart fruit flavours, dryly delivered; A kind of sweet peach meets tart lime cordial kind of thing. It could be that is just me trying and failing to describe the yuzu that was used in making this. Been a while since I last ran into it, so I don’t have it quite fresh in my memory. That lightly tart, fruity note is then set against a savoury backing – slight chalky dryness, and slight chilli warming with the peppercorn character.
Everything is done gently – a kiss of yeast funk, a light peppercorn warmth, a waft of tart fruit. It is a very unusual beer, but kind of refreshing in the tart and dry mix, matched with a satisfying, well they call it umami and who am I to argue with that, kind of character. It gives a slightly oily gripping center to an otherwise lighter beer.
Unusual and nice. Kind of gentle, but satisfying in what it does.
Background: Ok, I couldn’t find the o with a dash over it to indicate a long o sound You can see it on the can, you know where it is. We are all happy with the pronunciation, right? Ok, cool. Been grabbing less Wild Beer Co beers recently as their hit to miss ratio on experimentation has been going down a bit, but this new canned release sounded pretty cool. It is made with yuzu, seaweed and Szechuan peppercorns. Now, the can says that this beer is inspired by the Japanese folklore – but Szechuan, and therefore Szechuan peppercorns, is from China. Which is odd. Maybe they still get used a lot on Japan – I frankly have no idea. It just stood out, having had my taste-buds blown out by a Szechuan hot pot in China this year. It was bloody warm, and turns out the guide had ordered us the mildest version available. Anyway – continuing the trend of drinking beer with classic music albums, put on the collection of The Prodigy Singles for this one. Yes I’m a 90s teen. Another one bought from Independent Spirit.
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