Wild Damson Porter

Fruit beer 6.8%
Bottle conditioned, in 375 ml champagne bottles.
Release date 1 March 2013.

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Brewed on Tuesday 22 December 2012. Bottled 16.2.2013.

Design

The summer of 2011 was odd. It had been a very dry spring and the elderflowers shrivelled. But later in the summer the rains came (no, not like 2012, which was appalling). It helped the fruit to swell and the warm summer days went on into a little Indian Summer. There was lots of apples, hops, blackberries, mirabelles and I found this tree at East Beckham ladened with heavy dark blue-purple fruit. I picked a couple of kilograms, but I was ready to use them in wine, as I might have expected. Instead, they went into the freezer and stayed there. In the summer of 2012 by friend Matthew Clark from Thornbridge Brewery brought me a boxful of incredible beers. Amonst them was a beer tnhat had been laid on to blackberries for a while before bottling. This was enough to change the character and just a hint of fruit. This inspired me when I had a brew for Ten Thousand Geese. I had two and a half kilderkins, so I put the 2 Kg of damsons into the helf kilderkin and let it mature from late November to early February. This is considered by many to be my finest output to date. I just wish i had more of it, so I

Tasting notes

The first sip does not prepare you for what is to come. It is a smoked porter, quite dry. But then the fruit begins to make itself known and just continues to build until your mouth is full of luscious ripe damson flavour. It is like a fruit wine with a long lingering finish. Very satisfying.

This beer is produced without the use of any finings, filtering or pasteurisation, so all the flavours of the ingredients are preserved for your enjoyment.

Martin Warren, The Poppyland Brewer
31.1.2013