Tipples Beer Review #77 - 8 Wired Snake Charmer (NZ)

8 wired might seem a strange name for the brewery, that is until you understand the New Zealand context of the phrase, to 8 wire something is to improvise a fix, like bodging in the UK, gaffer taping something in Australia, or a Bush fix in an episode of Gold Rush. 8 wire is a gauge of wire that can fix anything.

So you’d be forgiven for thinking 8 wired is a slap dash organisation throwing things haphazardly, and nothing could be further from the truth, they are one of the grandfathers of New Zealand brewing, and although often playing with unusual flavour combination, technically brilliant and very measured,

So that brings us to today’s beer, Snake Charmer Barrel aged sour ale with black currant.

This is a very traditional beer in the way that it is brewed, a standard beer, then put in pinot barrels with fresh blackcurrants and aged for 2 years.

As you can see the beer is a deep browny red, it has a strange sludge in the bottle with I think has ruined the head, it has a bit of carbonation but is reasonably gentle, like a old homebrew where the secondary fermentation hasn’t quite worked. .

It's very tart mouth puckering sour on the first sip, which is a little jarring, even for this Sour loving beer drinker. It mellows a bit as you work into it, it’s similar to traditional lambic, but perhaps not as sweet.

It’s a really interesting beer, I quite like it.

Oh and Check out Beer Saturday here: https://steemit.com/beersaturday/@detlev/beerlovers-join-since-51-weeks-this-unique-challenge-and-get-paid-for-it-the-beersaturday