Virtue is Lost...

So, on with some regular content! We bleedin' loved having Siren over to brew with us. One of our all time favourites. With a brewery with as much rep in so many styles as Siren Craft Brew, how do you even decide what to brew? Their IPA game is bonkers, their stout prowess is ridonkulous, but we absolutely love their sours. We pitched the idea of a guava based sour to Sean (Head Brewer), who excitedly responded that guava was top of his list for some experimentation. More on that later...

I (Cameron) spent a week in Switzerland in the not too distant past. Not anything work related, but my good wife had a spare ticket for me on her work trip to Basel (important science stuff like). I jumped at the opportunity to spend a week somewhere new, and get these four recipes sorted, brew days secured in the calendar, ingredients ordered, priced up, branding and names finalised etc, away from the usual bustle of daily life at HQ.

By anyone's standards, Switzerland is a fairly expensive place to spend a few days, so rather than hit the pubs I took up a bit of running to clear my head each day and save some pennies. On the last day, I decided to run a loop that passed through France, Germany, and back to Basel, as a final challenge. The weather could not have been worse. I was about 30km in, and Sean called me to discuss the recipe. Now, it was snowing/raining intermittently, about 2c, I really really wanted to get back and get finished so decided to persevere if possible. I politely asked Sean if he could hear me okay: "No problem" he responded.

Great, so we spent a good 30 minutes on the phone talking about fruit and vanilla additions, souring tec

hniques, a new souring bacteria we could use, suppliers for bulk fruit, and all the usual things. Now I didn't tell Sean I was still running through the snow at that point, but when I got off the phone, I did a quick check of my map and realised I'd run COMPLETELY THE WRONG WAY THE WHOLE TIME WE HAD BEEN ON THE PHONE. So effectively travelled another 5km away from my base camp. Unbelievable.

Just a little anecdote for you there, as though this is just a normal day on normal Earth.

Anyway...

We decided to go with guava, vanilla, and to round it off, an unconventional use of cacao nibs. A risky brew whichever way you look at it. Thankfully, it's come out exactly as we wanted it to, and will have you pondering WHY it somehow makes sense.

The main challenge for this beer was trying to get over 500kg worth of pureed fruit into the top of our FV. It was messy work, but a fun day at the office.

We can't wait for you to try this beer, available now on our website, and part of the New Frontiers launch. Find out more about it at our virtual pub night, April 2nd.