Beer jacket

It's a new packaging format for Otterbank: they mostly do 33cl bottles, there are a few contract-brewed cans, but the latest comes in a 75cl bottle. Winter Coats is described as a "Burgundy BA mixed ferm ale" and is 7.5% ABV. The label treats us to all the gory details about Simonaitis yeast and 17 months of Brettanomyces exposure, if that sort of thing interests you. I just popped the cap and poured.

It's a muddy amber colour in the glass and smells funky, herbal and resinous; balsam with a dusting of Vaporub. I feared it was going to be a bit crazy but the flavour is much more harmonious. The wine's influence is very apparent, giving early notes of blackberry, raspberry and raisin. It's surprisingly thin, the alcohol well hidden and its malt character reduced to little more than champagne-like pale toast. The funky stuff waits until the end and arrives with a blend of earthy mushroom and sparky gunpowder, though nothing too loud and jarring. Forest fruits return in the finish.

This is a restrained and classy number. I drank it as an aperitif and it made an excellent appetite-whetter, showing qualities in common with a kir royale. That said, I think I would have liked some of the volume knobs turned up a little, and a more pronounced sour side in particular. The presentation format had me initially regarding it as a special occasion beer, but I don't think it is, really. This is more your everyday sharing bottle of funky fruity fun.