This beer started its life last October as a limited release called reverse autumn. We added 600kg of plum puree (20% of the beers weight) on day one of fermentation along with philly sour which is a lactobacillus strain to naturally sour the beer during primary fermentation. We then added some US-05 (our house ale strain) on day 5 to ferment the remaining di and tri-saccharides and get it up to 6.5%. It then fermented further in barrel and ended up at 7.5%.

It spent 6 months in barrel and we had 2 x 300L shiraz barrels and 2 x 300L chardonnay barrels from No. 7 winery in healesville (Yarra Valley).

We then emptied the barrels (separately) into a sterile IBC where we added sugar and a wine yeast (EC1118) before we bottled and allowed the bottles to condition for 4 weeks to naturally build up CO2 and carbonate to a nice spritzy level.

Chardonnay Barrel - Light/medium bodied. A prominent sweet plum jam aroma with nice chardonnay and oak character on the nose. A nice spritzy mouthfeel with big stone fruit character on the palette. Quite tart but well balanced with a touch of funk similar to a pet nat.

Shiraz Barrel - Medium bodied. A prominent sweet plum jam aroma with subtle oak on the nose. A fuller mouthfeel and increased tannin from the shiraz. A nice strawberries and cream flavour with red berry undertones. Still quite tart but balanced by the sweetness and mouthfeel.