500ml bottle. Light dirty orange with floating bits. Large white head that filled a weizen glass. Aroma is has earthy yeasty, light lemon, cloves and white pepper. Lightish mouthfeel. Taste has bready sweetness with a little lemon and orange, but is dominated by spices: white pepper, cloves and a lot of Sichuan pepper (prickly ash). I suppose they’re Tassie-grown German hops but they’re really powerful and leave the mouth tingling with spices. Mild astringency at the finish too. Startling. [ 3.5]As Derwent Aromatic Spelt Ale. Cloudy orange with a small white head. Barnyard, apricot stones, lemons, spices. Light bodied, just slightly slippery, highish carbonation. Tart with grainy and under-ripe stone fruit, moldering lemon and spices. This time it’s made clear that it’s meant to be sour and was brewed from a sour mash, but it’s actually a bit tamer than last time (if it can really be said to be the same beer). Still, pretty bold stuff.

[2/10] Bottle. Just hazy gold, an inch of off-white head. Smells yeasty with biscuits, pine, grass and particularly citrus. There’s some malt sweetness and a yeasty touch but it’s all rather masked by pronounced citrus sourness. Very much in Coopers green territory. [6 3 4 3 11 2.7]Bottled Feb 15. I thought this was the one they were trying to keep "normal" - clearly I haven’t been paying enough attention. Label now features words like _farmhouse_ and _souring_. Amber with a puffy white head that lasts. Smells like lambic - lemon, dough, apricot stones, puke, flowers. Just slightly kefir-slippery, moderate carbonation. Slight sweetness is grainy with some apricot, heavy funk, moderate mouldering lemon sourness. Well, well.

Pours amber with a large, lasting head.Nose shows resinous and grassy hops, with light sweet clean malt in the background.Flavours include more clean malt with some hops that can only be described as sharp and clean, with a faint bitterness following.Soft, creamy carbonation.

Out of a 330ml bottle on 31/12/2009. Golden brew with a decent head, quite cloudy, with quite a bit of yeast sediment. No strong aroma, just a hint of grass and citrus. Taste wise, it’s very lemony - almost more sour than bitter. It feels a little thin in the mouth. A slightly puzzling, unusual beer, which doesn’t quite hit the mark.

[12/09] This is down near the Brown Ale/ Porter border. Numbered bottle (406)! Pours black, dense beige head. Subtle aroma: chocolate, orchard flowers. Chocolatey with some sourness but no bite from (I guess) the apples. Creamy mouthfeel, cleaned up at the end by sourness and gentle hops reminiscent of a dark lager. If this were more assertive it would be kind of a mess, but it’s quite mild in both flavour and aroma and that restraint pays off. Original and good. [3.8] [9/10] Bottle. Dark brown with a lasting beige head. Chocolate, coffee and apple blossoms - although once you know there’s apple juice in there it smells more of fresh juice. Mild roast, chocolate and just-sour apple taste with nice balancing earth/grass hop bitterness that lingers. It’s curious (and good) that the apples have a tenor-note sourness rather than an overt tartness. A very intriguing drop. [3.8] [2/11] Bottle. Older or a different batch? In this one the tart apples have taken over and there’s just a hint of chocolate and roast under real and slightly funky sourness. More spice than grass in the finish, too. Interesting, but not much like a porter at all this time. [7/14] Seems settled as a deliberately sour beer now - nothing porter-like about it. No separate apple flavours either. Usually very good, always interesting.[4/17] Aug 2016 bottle Very low carbonation, almost no head. Very gentle sourness, some bracken. Neither chocolate nor apple are obvious. Could do with just a little more presence. Seems more like a sour brown Flemish beer than before. Leaving score as is, but this is very lovely indeed. A tonic.