As is typically my practice when spending an afternoon at a brewery or craft beer bar, for my third glass, I asked the opinion of the person behind the bar. The dude at the Letraria Craft Beer Garden wasted no time in recommending the Late Harvest Wild Grape from the Letra on Oak series of barrel aged beers. A 7% ale, the beer is French oak-aged with 20% late-harvested Fernão Pires grapes. The 370mL bottle arrived corked and caged. Once freed, the hazy golden ale exuded a singular sweet and funky white wine aroma. Though it poured with a modest white head, this faded almost immediately, leaving only some loose, sudsy tectonics.
The
beer had a tart, yeasty flavour. Not sour, exactly, but certainly funky
in the way of a wild saison or a particularly tangy Belgian ale. The
winy nose persisted into the flavour, though it was joined by notes of
sour cherry and wacky yeast.
I always love to
ask staff what I should be sampling. In this instance, I ended up with a
quirky, barrel-aged, grape infused beer I’d never have ordered myself.
And the result was really quite excellent—unique flavour, lots of booze,
and a nice opportunity to talk beer with a dude who knew his stuff. I
also seldom get to see an “enjoy by” date that extends to 2030.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
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