Beer - #246 - Three Boys - Wild Plum Ale

In for a penny with this, a Three Boys Wild Plum Ale, Brewed by Three Boys Brewery in the style of a  Fruit Beer from the wonderful Christchurch, New Zealand.

A 330ml of a 7.7ABV beer , 1.9 standard drink units give or take.

Every autumn in the deep south, the Three Boys family harvest wild cherry plums from the family farm and celebrate their capture in traditional preserves. The Three Boys brewer takes these same fruit and captures those evocative flavours in this Wild Plum Ale.

Aroma is just of yeast and a hint of a fruit sweetness, it's not pronounced.  Pours a really golden orange with more head than humpty dumpty!

It's quite tart and bit like unsweetened stewed fruit as a taste, you can pick that it's plums, but knowing that it's called Plum Ale sort of helps out :-)

It's not sweet to drink, might want to notch that up a bit, but then it might be more a lambic fruit. and then I thought that there is a roughness in the profile, not enough to put you off though.

Drinking this along with a Nick Cave live from the KCRW album on a summer evening and all is good.

I thought....and that's how the trouble started....  that I might have got more sweetness, less tartness, and I thought I would get more 'musty' than there is. It's really a fantastic colour, well carbonated and doesn't have unusual or sharp edges that catch you out. But it's not a lambic, as I tell myself again.

So how do I mark it as a fruit beer/ale? The same way. As it warmed up a bit there was more 'fruitiness' but not overt pluminess. So the pdubyah-o-meter ever a quandary says that 7, lucky 7 for this, it's good but not spectacular, and only a 7 because less would be mean.

I liked it, would I have another? Not really there are many better alternatives to this, cider for instance come to mind. However big final thing, 7.7ABV, likely to be a show stopper if you think that you'd have another, could be a short evening not overly rewarded.

FRUIT BEER (def.)

Any ale or lager made with fruit. See beer description for flavor. Body, color, hop character and strength vary depending on the type of fruit used.

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Beer – #13 in a series – Banana Bread Beer

Gosh,  This is a very 'fizzy" on the tounge beer this one. And whilst hit smells like Bananas it's not  in a banana way,  more the sort of the banana you get from lolls, a faux banana.

The Wells Brewery say; "This unique brew combines all the traditional qualities and style of a Charles Wells beer with the subtle flavour of banana" and they've been at it since at least 2002 when they won a prize for best in show.

Pdubyah says  "what a weird concoction". The label says it's made with Fair trade bananas so that's alright then, isn't it? It might be that fair trade bananas taste like candy bananas. Who knows.

Not quite the taste sensation that it implies, nor is it something that I think I'd be happy with as a 'Session" beer. For mine it promises more than a passing sense of smell and for that reason on the arbitrary pdubyah-o-meter is's a 3 out of 5 or 6 from 10 if you're old money.

But at 5.2 Alc/Vol and in a pint size I might not care after a couple. And thanks again New World Supermarket Albany you have an amazing selection

The great banana drama

The corporate workplace has a pretty generous healthy outlook. We're provided with breakfast cereals, jams, bread and fruit.

The fruit monitor fell into the role by meer dint that they started buying it. They got bored, as you do, disrupting the routine and confusing the #cubefarm workers.

So I ousted them as fruit patrol and had one of the #crones offer to step in and take up the cudgel.

This should have had the effect of quelling the unrest from the masses, in a generous workplace the things that get noticed the most are the cheap things, and so the banana drama unfolds.

So week 1 shopping, the #crone, who clearly lives alone and has some kind of public service mentality brought 12 bananas to last a week, for a staff of 60 people. They also brought Kiwifruit, red and green apples, and pears.

The masses were not happy that the banana allowance had been slashed. The #crone was surprised since the green apples and mostly the kiwifruit had 'lasted' which is pretty contrary to the healthy option that we encourage.

So gently nudging them in the right directions for week 2 they brought 20 banana's for the week.

There are plenty of green apples and kiwifruit left over from last week to be eaten and this is sadly being taken as a sign of success. Public service mentality and spinster living, what can you do.

Stand by for a week 3 update.