Donkey derby

About a year ago I had my first encounter with Black Donkey's Underworld series, beers fermented with wild yeast harvested from a cave local to the brewery. That was the red ale, Rua, and now I've got my hands on a few more wild-fermented specials.

Rua's pale companion piece is called Allta and is 4.6% ABV. It was mostly clear until I came towards the end of the bottle while pouring. Finished, it's a dark shade of orange with a substantial cloudiness. I'm guessing it's broadly a saison, though one of the gentler fruity sort if so, with lots of mango and nectarine in the aroma. The flavour is subtle, reflecting the strength, but has some very interesting features on display: I got the tropical fruit again, but also spearmint, clove and some drier white pepper. It's a light-touch sort of Brett-esque taste, enabling the beer to stay drinkable and refreshing while also highly complex. I think I would have liked it a bit bigger and bolder, but I have few complaints here.

Blackrock Cellar has exclusivity over a barrel-aged version of Rua, given time in Irish whiskey and then Italian Recioto barrels, creating Ruacioto. It's a similar shade of dark garnet, though the ABV gets a boost, from 6% to 6.8%. The wine makes a modest contribution to the aroma while the whiskey, talked down in the brewer's description, is very present in the foretaste: hot, sweet malt, seasoned with oak and honey. With DOT's Recioto beer I was very impressed by the herbal characteristics. This doesn't really have anything similar, though there is a strong savoury element, tasting dry and salty. I don't know that it's really an improvement on the original. It's a bit sweaty to begin but rounds out as it warms. While the succulent red grape and summer berry side grows in prominence, it never quite manages to take over, leaving the beer dry and sappy throughout. Overall, it's OK, but it left me wanting more from the wine element.

There's a bit of cross-lingual punning going on in our final beer. Phraseology is a rye saison flavoured with strawberries and aged in barrels for two years. The result is 6.5% ABV and a medium orange colour, not pink. It smells quite sharp, the wild yeast I'm guessing is doing its bit to ferment out all the sugar it can. Surprisingly, there's enough sugar left to carry the strawberry, creating a certain jammyness in the centre. It's a proper sour beer around the edges, however, with notes of nitre brick, soda-water minerals and resinous wood. More spicing would be nice, but I'm happy with how this blends the fruit and barrel sides to create something complex while still lots of fun. 

Black Donkey has certainly been getting its money's worth out of the yeast it happened across in Oweynagat cave. I sense there's room for much more experimentation still to come.