Wildflower St Phoebe 2022
REGION: Marrickville, NSW
SIZE: 750ml / ABV: 5.8%
Sweet red fruits dominate the nose. Bright raspberry, sweet jammy strawberry and dark broody plum. Lifted red confectionary sweets and musky perfume. Wafts of funk, oak and frankincense. Intense palate. Brimming with vibrant ripe fruits, raspberry, plum and cranberry. A funky vinous element gives wonderful dimension and complexity. The oak is present yet controlled, perfectly interlaced with the fruit. The finish is racy, cleansing the palate in a whirlwind of raspberry acidity.
"I took a whole new approach in making Phoebe '22 than I did in '21. There was something about the '20 release that the '21 didn't quite reach... the sweetness of the plum, the clarity of the fruit... While I liked the '21, I really set out to see if I could repeat the '20 in this '22 ale. A practice we use quite commonly and almost religiously is a period (days/weeks) of carbonic soaking of whole fruit in tank before we add beer. For the fruit, this allows a moment of super-ripening as well as allowing the microflora on the fruit to bloom a bit and be present in the eventual refermentation. In '21 we let that run a bit longer than I did in '20 and there was a fair bit more fruit in a single tank... so in '22 I split the fruit between various tanks as to not allow for additional compaction for the plums at the bottom and watched/smelled the carbonic soaks everyday to make a call as to when to add beer.
What I realised is that I'm trying to hit an axis of fruit ripeness and microflora bloom... letting the former go as far as it can before the latter becomes dominant. As the same as '21, however, this '22 Phoebe is one of the last fruit beers from the harvest to be released. It spent three months macerating with fruit and has been conditioning in bottle for over 6 months now. The barrel selection in this 'St' this year, if I can say so, is really nice. It's apparent in the final beer, a really complex, intriguing experience." - Topher
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.