The sixth Fellowship Ale is something different altogether: limited to 437 bottles, this is the classic Wild West (aged for 9 months on red wine barrels so longer than the original Wild West) with a very non-classic herb added, known by its Japanese name shiso, but in Dutch sometimes referred to as notenkruid or even biefstukplant as well. This cultivated Perilla species has essential oils with a specific and very expressive aroma, sometimes compared to basil or cilantro. Shiso has on rare occasions been applied in craft beer, most notably in Japan (because of the plant's origins) and the U.S. (because, well, American craft beer has been trying just about anything since its beginnings), but I never saw it in any Belgian beer, let alone a Belgian sour… Forms a medium thick, tightly and refinedly lacing, eggshell-white, delicately creamy and remarkably stable head, crowning a hazed apricot blonde robe with a pale orange glow and minute but vivid bubbles rising up through the haze. Earthy, herbal aroma: the musty, funky character of Wild West gets a subtle yet distinctive herb treatment here, resulting in impressions of purple gooseberries, overripe blue plum, very 'nutty' sherry, delicate and volatile shiso aspects reminiscent of dried basil and lemonbalm, strawberries, red juice oozing from a medium rare steak, crabapple, old orange juice starting to ferment, barnyard, rose petals, clay, sour cream, soaking wet brown bread. Refreshing crispness opens the palate, rounded plum- and gooseberry-like fruit sourness with a tangy, lemony edge, but, as usual in Alvinne's sours, backed by that soothing, mellow malt sweetishness, sweetbread-like almost, even if this underlying sweetness is largely 'obscured' by the overall, yoghurty-lactic sourness. This sourness blends with tannic woodiness in the end, though in this case and contrary to some of the other Fellowship (and other Alvinne) sours, it is the wine tartness and grape peel-like effects that prevail. The shiso remains altogether subtle: a discreet pinch of kitchen herb-like, ethereal aromatics, almost green tea-like and indeed basil-like, but not overly dominant anywhere - though the lovely aromatic nuttiness that follows retronasally, might just as well be attributed to it, enhanced perhaps by malty and yeasty aspects. Ends as crisp and refreshing as it began, with a lingering lime-like sourness drying the throat and fully quenching the thirst, like a herbal tonic served at an inn in Middle-earth would be, I can imagine. Athelas may be a healing herb in Tolkien's universe, this Alvinne brew is certainly a healing drink in our world.