Wildflower St Thomas 2023: Cherry
REGION: Marrickville, NSW
SIZE: 750ml / ABV: 5.6%
St Thomas is a golden barrel aged ale wholly fermented by a diversity of yeasts and bacteria collected from native flowers in NSW refermented with cherries, named for Chris and Emily’s first son. This is the first year of St Thomas having a golden base instead of our Amber. We made the decision to switch after multiple years of concurrent tests between golden and amber bases on cherry beers between St Thomas and 'Rose Gold', a cherry beer made for our internal membership group The Collective. We have found, in the end, the fruit character to carry brighter with the golden base and especially over time see the marzipan character from the pits into the future. As I love grower champagne, the extended almond-like pit maceration on Gold won out in the end... In 2023, St Thomas was made by blending barrel aged golden mixed culture fermentation ale with 650kg of fresh, whole, handpicked, tree ripened Morello sour cherries from Thornbrook Orchard in Nashdale, NSW. After a 7.5 month maceration and refermentation of fruit and beer, it was bottled and allowed to naturally carbonate and mature before release.
It's difficult to overstate the impact of Wildflower since its inception only a few years ago in 2017. Hailing from Texas, Topher Boehm has an impressive resume - from Brasserie Thiriez to Jester King to his background in astrophysics - not to mention his unique house yeast. Cultivated from foraged wildflowers native to NSW, think wattle blossoms and banksia, blended with a Belgian saison strain, creating something truly individual which speaks of place. Topher even sprayed the entire brewery with inoculated wort when he moved in, just to make sure everything was literally covered in the house culture.