Campervan Brewery and eteaket have teamed up to release two new sour beers as part of the Lost in Leith range.
A year after launching its Lost In Leith barrel aged range, Campervan Brewery is releasing its first two barrel aged sour beers - Foeder Cherry Sour and Jasmine Brett Berliner - in collaboration with local tea merchant eteaket.
The new sour beers have been over a year in the making and have allowed the brewers to experiment with different oak formats, wild yeasts and bacteria.
As usual with Campervan Brewery, the team have added a delicate twist to the two sours to help compliment and elevate the base beers.
The Foeder Cherry Sour is a 7.5% ABV Sour Red ale that was aged in one of the brewery's Fermentaria Foeders for 10 months, then re-fermented with Scottish sweet cherries and Middle Eastern mahlab (ground cherry pits).
The result is a deeply sour, red wine-like beer with cherries, plums and spice note.
A spokesperson for Campervan Brewery said: “The Foeder Cherry Sour is the second beer released from our foeders and is the first beer showcasing our house souring blend.
"There is a great depth of flavour, featuring a cherry-forward strain of brettanoymces, as well as a balance between the acidity and perceived sweetness from Scottish sweet cherries and baking spices.”
The Jasmine Brett Berliner is a 4.7% ABV Barrel Aged Berliner Weisse that was aged in Burgundian Chardonnay barrels for 10 months with a single strain of Brettanomyces.
The beer was then cold steeped in Jasmine Chun Hao tea from eteaket.
The result, the team said, is a sour lemon beer with a bouquet of Jasmine, pome fruit and supporting funk.
Avid tea drinker, Campervan’s brewer Patrick Smith, has always admired the work of eteaket and when the idea of ageing a beer with tea came to his mind, they were an obvious choice for the project.
He said: “We've been fortunate to work closely with local tea experts eteaket, to produce a delicately balanced Jasmine-infused Berliner Weisse.
"Working with Sam Holburn has been a pleasure and with his help and knowledge we've produced a collaborative beer that we're very proud of.”
Speaking bout the collaboration, Erica Moore eteaket managing director and Sam Holburn, operation manager said: “We love a great cup of tea but we also love to experiment and innovate with our blends to create iced teas, tea cocktails and mocktails, lattes and many more tea inspired delights.
"We source and provide the highest quality award winning leaf tea and value local ingredients just as much, which is why we jumped at the chance to collaborate with Campervan Brewery.
"We felt we had a shared ethos for the value in handcrafted products and championing quality ingredients.
"The collaboration process has been exciting learning all about Beer production and the testing of our different tea varieties to get us to the end result.”
Alongside those two sour beers, Campervan Brewery is also releasing the Vintage 2021 of their already classic Brett Pils.
This second vintage of the Brett Pils is a blend of three barrels, this vintage is a little drier and features more oak than the June 2020 vintage.
The three beers are available to buy now on the Campervan Brewery web store and in a selection of bottle shops.
A few 750ml editions of the three beers will also be available at Campervan’s venues, Lost in Leith bar and fermentaria and the Taproom Beer Garden in Leith.
