Fruited Barrel-Aged Sours

In the old world Belgian tradition of adding fruit to Lambic beer, there are alternative fruits used to the most common cherry and raspberry. What is notable about the Kriek is that brewers selected a particular variety that traditionally grew in a small region in the Senne Valley. To take inspiration from this we decided to look in our, figurative, back yard to see what our agriculturally rich area had to offer and landed on the pawpaw fruit.

Pawpaw is a fruit tree that is native to the Carolinian forests of our area. This longtime overlooked fruit is making its way into the culinary scene in the northern states and southern Ontario. This interestingly tropically flavoured fruit is in the custard apple family and tastes somewhere between a banana and mango, with notes of lychee. Flavours we thought could suit a Lambic quite well. As we were only able to get our hands on a very small amount of this fruit, we were only able to produce a very limited number of bottles of this beer. The final product is a complex and sour beer through which a faint pawpaw character finds its way.

A uniquely Norfolk beer.