Great British Beer Festival 2011
ABV: 6%
Origin: Lembeek, Vlaams-Brabant, Vlaanderen (matured in Roma, Italy)
Revelation Cat Craft Brewing
Rome-based gyspy brewer Alex Liberati has been doing some strange stuff with unblended lambics from Boon and Girardin over the past few years. I wasn’t convinced by his single hop dry hopped lambics — traditionally lambic brewers have used hops aged to lose their characteristic bitterness for good reason, as it’s extremely difficult to meld the bitter and sour flavours successfully. But lambic is matured for long periods in wooden barrels in any case, so using vessels previously filled with something else seems a logical development.
Two of these experimental lambics reached the Great British Beer Festival, for some reason on the ‘New World’ rather than the Belgian/Dutch/Italian bar. One, which I missed, had been matured in a Laphroaig Islay malt whisky cask; this three year old lambic, originally brewed at Boon, had spent time in a barrel previously used for the Sicilian fortified wine Marsala.
The beer is cloudy gold, with a little fine white head, though generally flat. An obvious wet plastic lambic aroma is tinged with spirit and wood notes and softended by ripe fruit. The palate is lightly tart but very fruity and slightly vinous, complex with apricot notes and a sweetish touch. The beer finishes citric, slightly peppery and chewy, with orange tones and more hints of spirit and wood, lingering at leisure with a fine balance of tartness and vinous fruit.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/revelation-cat-marsala-lambic/150724/
Shame you didn’t get a change to try the Laphroaig version – it was fantastic. I made the mistake of drinking the Marsala version second and could barely taste it as a result!
BeerBirraBier.
Marsala is not a fortified wine.
Sorry. My mistake and confusion. It is fortified.
Phew! I do remember double checking before writing that.