Month: August 2016

Real Beer Fans Prefer Brunettes

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

(First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2008)

Real beer fans prefer brunettes.

If we had a visiting team of beer marketers in our office, we’d smack them on the noses with rolled up newspapers and rub their noses in their directionless campaigns and misinformation. One of many irritants in recent beer marketing to us is the label ‘blonde.’ For about a century, ‘blonde’ has been used to describe a lighter coloured beer, and all was well. Now ‘blonde’ is somehow associated with a low carbohydrate content. We’re still to work out the connection.

Doctor Trent Watson from the Australian Institute of Accredited Dieticians says the low-carb option is far from the ideal choice for those consumers watching their energy intake. “Carbohydrates should be 40-50% of our total energy intake, and that the average full strength beer has about as many carbohydrates as half a slice of bread (~7gms)” he says.  So it’s like ordering a diet soft-drink to go with a bucket of fried chicken. It’s not the carbo’s in beer that’s the nutritional problem. Most beers are low in residual sugar but it’s the alcohol that’s really the culprit. If you’re like us, you’d prefer to think of alcohol as a handy solvent that happens to make us happy on it’s otherwise ineffectual trip through the body. Unfortunately we’re very much deluded when it comes to nutrition. Our bodies happen to be damn good at metabolising the depressant alcohol which is almost immediately stored as fat in our livers.

A healthier alternative is low or mid strength beers, or our favourite: drink less, but drink well. Considering our preference for bar stools over bicycles, the scariest thing we learned from Dr. Trent is that each full strength beer holds around 600 kilojoules, which takes about 30 minutes of walking to burn off. That’s right, it’d take 3 hours of walking to burn off a 6 pack of beer, or  around 2 hours for a 6 pack of light. There’s no way in hell a 6 pack of light beer is ever going to be worth 2 hours of walking in our minds. Maybe it’s time to get a carton of Coopers Birell (0.5%abv) before my WiiFit instructor starts calling me fat again.

 

Big Brown Creatures and Little White Rabbits

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

Big brown Creatures and little White Rabbits

(First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2010)

When a large cardboard box arrived at the Beer Radar office recently we were all in a tizzy. Especially when we realised it was from Little Creatures and White Rabbit. It’s not every day that we get a few beers in the post from Australia’s brewing rock stars. They’re not the kind of breweries that knock out a new beer every week, so we guess that these beers will be well thought out and executed.

First up, a big brown bottle of limited release Brown Ale from Little Creatures. It’ll be a solid, yet hoppy beer, we know that before we’ve chilled and opened it. What we got was power, balance and restraint. Powerful aromas in an American style but not in an ‘old-ladies’ perfume’ kind of powerful. There’s a solid blend of malts including a hint of spicy rye. Rye is rarely seen in Australian brewed beers and it adds a unique nutty spice and a little oilyness that suits darker beers. Each malt in the Little Creatures brown ale stands out instead of a forming a mish-mash of flavours and we’re guessing this beer has been through as much refining as a race-car does before it’s been released because it’s spot on. Kegs and open fires please.

White Rabbit had sent us a little potion sized bottle of their White Ale. We’d also tried it recently on tap at our local and while the draught version seemed a little light-on for us, the bottled version, maybe because of the small amount of yeast in each bottle, seems to have a lot more oomph for what’s still a pretty light kind of beer. There’s a hint of spice, the classic orange peel and coriander but again, very restrained. Belgian Wit is a fantastic style and so well suited to our hot summers, here’s hoping some venues cotton on to a little White Rabbit this coming summer.

*Mentioned beers were supplied by the breweries

Weizens 2012

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

“Weetbeers – Like Weetbix, but breakfast for grownups.” (First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2012)

OK, that may not get past the officials, and Moa got in trouble with the NZ officials after they released a cherry wheat beer and suggested it’d make an awesome breakfast beer; and it does. For those of you who aren’t too seedy on a Sunday morning, wheat beers with a pan-fried breakfast are perfect matches. Gentle acidity, a little soft sweetness, carbonation and refreshment, all go with bacon and eggs on sourdough toast.  Try a half litre of fresh Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen, swirled so the yeast is incorporated into the correct tall weizen glass. Add a slice of lemon if it’s stinking hot weather. Serve next to a barbequed slice of Jagerbraten with all of the trimmings, it’s wunderbar!

Ground breaking Spanish chef Ferran Adrià teamed up with Estrella to produce Estrella Inedit. It’s a Belgian style wheat beer that includes the usual coriander and orange zest, but also a hint of liquorice. It’s subtle enough to add complexity without tasting like Liquorice All-Sorts. It’s a stunningly packaged 750ml beer, which can be purchased around the $10 mark, surprisingly. It’s more of a dinner party wheat rather than a breakfast beer. Ferran is known for pioneering amazing molecular gastronomic creations, so many fans were surprised that this beer is so restrained.

For an Aussie option, the classic – bacon, origin-unknown snag, baked beans and egg goes well with a variety of local wheat beers. Here’s some Aussie options:

Cascade Blonde – The Germans would call it a Kristalweizen because there’s no yeast so it’s clear. It’s a good entry level wheat beer. Nothing too offensive, which is what Cascade does best. It’s clean and clear while still having a sweet wheat aroma.

McLaren Vale has a bubbling collection of craft brewers at the moment and there’s a handful of good wheat beers to be found there too.

Swell Wheat Beer –Swell Beer Company co-founder Dan Wright also loves a good wheat beer. His version has a lean towards a Belgian style with a hint of orange peel and delivers aromatic esters while still being an easy drinker. You’ve got to love the 500ml bottles too.

Goodieson’s Wheat Beer – It’s had a brewer’s loving touch for ester production. Head brewer Jeff Goodieson has the passion and know-how to really make German wheat beer yeasts sing, and it shows. It also picked up the Ecolab Trophy for Champion Wheat Beer at the 2012 Royal Adelaide Beer Awards in a close competition.

McLaren Vale Beer Company Wit – Another Belgian style wheat beer. Limited production means that it’s only occasionally available in kegs.  This beer reminds me of a young crowd at the Vale Inn Taphouse on a sunny day, lamb on the spit and large plastic cups of cold beer. Head brewer Jeff Wright says there should be some fresh Wit pouring at the Taphouse around Christmas time.

 

Wahoo?

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

Wahoo? (First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2011)

We’ve recently seen the only significant difference in beer packaging since we spotted aluminium Heineken bottles during a pub crawl through Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong back in 2004. Gage Roads have released its Wahoo Ale in a new Vortex bottle made by the high profile American owned glass company O-I in Sydney. The inside of the bottle neck has large smooth grooves twisting around almost like rifling in a gun barrel, while the outside of the bottle remains normal. Miller Lite in the States has been doing the same thing for a while. Not surprisingly, everyone has asked “why?” and the only reason we can think of is chugging a beer could possibly happen ever so slightly faster, not that there’s any mention of accelerated consumption in the Miller Lite or Gage Roads press-releases and marketing. So it’s basically a point of difference in the glass packaging that Gage Roads are hoping will give them an edge in a very crowded market. We couldn’t tell any difference to the flow of the beer from the bottle but we swear the Wahoo tasted hoppier than it did the last time we tried it, even though Gage Roads assured us that the recipe hasn’t changed since its first release.

A family lunch at the Adelaide German Club recently was even better than usual when we realised that Hofbräu Maibock was on tap. Traditionally, in Munich, the first barrel of Maibock is tapped in the last week of April in readiness for the month of May. Hofbräu Maibock is Munich’s oldest bock (strong beer), which dates all the way back to 1614. Now that’s brewing heritage! The Maibock is darker than the Hofbräu Original and has a very rich malt flavour with a high alcohol level of 7.2%. After three or four 500ml steins, you certainly realise that this is no ordinary beer. Hofbräu 500ml bottles are available at most good bottle shops. We rate their beers highly.

Transitional Beers

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

Transitional Beers. (First published in Wine Business Magazine in 2010)

We’ve covered some of the darker beers a few months ago in Beer Radar, and we’re leaving the stouts until they’re really needed. This month we look at a selection we hope could be transitional beers. The ones you could feed to your your Dad in the hope that at last he’ll give up his nasty generic beer in a can.

Matilda Bay – Fat Yak: Reeking of hops. Truck full of citrus crashes into a cheap perfume stall. Might smell too scary for Dad. Background aromas of malty goodness. Resiny bitterness backed up with a light malt sweetness and thin body. Almost a little watery at the end, fading away.

Coopers – Sparkling Ale: classic Aussie Pride of Ringwood hop flavour so Dad will recognise something familiar, but also bready yeast complexity and toffee. We’d call it Mother’s Milk but milk has never been this good. Like a good radio station, the hits we love but also something a bit different.

Mildura Brewery – Mallee Bull Heavy: A malty amber style ale. Loads of dense malty goodness without being overly sweet. Subtle bitterness and all round well balanced beer. Good soft intro into decent drinking. Could have a few of these.

Barons Brewing – Black Wattle Original Ale: Sweet, nutty and rich but it’s not as heavy as it smells, so you can drink more than one. Creeping bitterness. A gutsy amber ale with roasted black wattle seeds giving a seedy nutty twist to the usual chocolate and coffee flavours associated with winter ales. Looks too good to drink from the bottle, should be in longnecks or growlers.

Cascade – First Harvest 2010: Malty for a Cascade, still bright and clear but with a hint of colour. The bitterness units might be up there but the Fat Yak slayed this beer in regards to hop presence. Dad friendly beer. The bitterness might start Dad up on the old Southwark Bitter “green death” rant again so better not risk it.

A Cidery Start and a Hidden Beer Finish.

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

A cidery start and a hidden beer finish.

(First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2011)

 

It doesn’t take a short fuzzy mandolin player to tell you that cider is a big thing at the moment. Even Perry is making its way back onto the shelves. We’ve braved the meagre 4 days of heat during the recent summer and have downed a few great ciders including Adelaide Hills Cider on tap which has been a revelation. It’s all that we love about artisan cider; a hint of natural spontaneous ferment sourness, real apple flavour, and no nasty saccharine or other artificial flavours. Lobo Cider from Lobethal, also in the Adelaide Hills was a bridge-too-far for my sister-in-law who pronounced “this is off!” and left the rest for us to down faster than a dog eats dropped snags at a BBQ. Some people prefer their cider without the rustic charm and a little more 20th century. One cider we’ve sampled recently from our other favourite spot in the world, the Yarra Valley, is Coldstream Cider. It’s made by brewers so it doesn’t have any funk, but it does taste like real apples and is a damn site better than the artificial ciders popular with the alcho-pop brigade. It’s also thankfully lacking in the massive hit of sulpher that’s prominent in some of the imported ciders and sits somewhere between sweet and dry on the residual sugar. We copped a lot of flak from the UK expats about adding ice to our cider but we’re not in cardigan and long socks country anymore are we? We’re that impressed with the cider, we’re keen to try what else Coldstream are doing.

Our favourite surfy brewers from Byron Bay, Stone and Wood, have intelligently renamed their deliciously fruity ale. Previously called Draught Ale (Draught means “drawn from the tap” a fresh beer) certainly makes sense on tap, but the term “draught” in relation to packaged beer has always irritated us. It’s like bottled water, but in a can. Anyway, their beer is still great fresh from the tap or bottle as we’ve reported before, but now to avoid more confusion (we’re looking at you West End and Carlton) Stone and Wood have renamed their excellent beer “Pacific Ale”. Why “Pacific”? Buggered if we know but it makes more sense.

As the nights cool down, it’s time to work out which sock drawer you’ve stashed the Coopers Vintage Ale. Initially we couldn’t stand the previous vintage fresh from the brewery. It seemed all marshmallow weed and cheap lollies, but given time to mature the 2009 has really come up a treat. We’ve even stashed bottles in various locations so we don’t knock them off all in one go. Young and foolish beer nerds dismiss the ale quoting the term “oxidised” and go back to their Fat Yacks, but hey “dudes”, great matured bevvies that have a bit of oxygen under their belts flourish with new and complex flavours. Don’t ask us for proof, ask Seppelts 100 year old port for example. The 2009 Coopers Vintage Ale will be our sneaky brandy balloon tipple during the coming colder months until we stop finding all of the hidden stubbies.

 

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

(First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2011)

You can’t always get what you want

But if you try sometimes you might find

You get what you need (to drink)

 

Try as I will, I just can’t find a Pomegranate Saison in my local bottle shop. For that matter Berliner Weisse and Lambics are pretty rare as well. There’s a plethora of beers out there and my tongue is dying to meet them. The trouble is, they’re just too obscure to find in even a specialty bottle shop let alone a purveyor of mass marketed generic beers. One old bloke in a drive through bottlo thought I was taking the piss when I asked if he had any Little Creatures, so I probably would have got a punch in the nose if I’d mentioned Buttface Amber Ale.

A search on the internet revealed that Valley Brewing Co in California do make a Pomegranate Saison, but getting my hands on one would be quite a task. The next best option, or maybe the best, is to make one myself. Ah, the joys of home brewing. Not with a can opener and a kettle of boiling water but with malted barley, fresh raw wheat and two bottles of pomegranate molasses. A couple of packs of specialist liquid yeast from the USA complete this unique brew. French Saison yeast contributes peppery, dry spicy characters with a “farmhouse” kind of twang. The resulting beer is weird to say the least. It suggests fruit and sweetness at the start but takes a quick u-turn on the tongue and finishes dry and tart. Refreshing and interesting, it’s being raved about by some of my close friends who happen to have tasted the best of the best in the wine industry and like me, crave alternatives to wine and mainstream beers on occasion.

The good news is, I’m not alone. The home brewing fraternity understand my lust for alternative beers and they’re knocking up some stunning alternatives to the usual offerings. Just have a run through the following selection of highly ranked beers entered in the Specialty Beer class from the recent home brew awards in Adelaide;

Smoked Marzen, Hibiscus Witbier, oak aged IPA, oak-aged Anzac IPA, Russian imperial stout wood-aged beer, pumpkin, ginger & spiced beer, light Grenache grape ale, Christmas spiced ale, sour cherry Saison, Hibiscus Belgian ale, honey & lemon myrtle beer, fruit and spice old ale, cherry beer, stout with cocoa & vanilla, Schwarzbier/Lambic, traditional Bock with blueberries, Christmas spiced star anise coriander & vanilla beer, red & raisons smoked ale, vanilla & maple syrup beer and maple pale ale.

Word is the class was a joy to judge and I’m quite envious of those involved in judging this class. Luckily 110 litres of Pomegranate Saison should keep me happy for a while.

 

 

 

Judgement Day 2012

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

(First published in Wine Business Magazine in 2012)

Judgement Day

So after a heap of phone calls and emails, I’m on my way in for my first stint as an associate beer judge for commercial beers at the first Royal Adelaide Beer Show since the 1800’s and I’m quite excited. I also know that my father is about to go in for the second session of heart surgery sometime that day. I’ve got my phone on silent but the whole day I’m praying that it doesn’t start vibrating with an urgent call from the hospital. I’m also expecting some amazing beers about to be tasted over the next two days, and I’m going be smack bang in the middle of an impressive group of beer professionals. Yes, it was a sausage fest but I’ve been assured that this balance will change. Behind the PR companies and the marketing departments, the message banks and the receptionists were a room full of Australian beer Illuminati; A heap of professional brewing blokes that don’t answer their phones unless they know who’s calling. A steadily reinforced line of Lion Nathan brewers sit on one wing of tables sticking very close together, a few scruffy micro-brewers in patches and then a handful of Coopers brewers, the head judge being Simon Fahey from Coopers in the middle, looking like a greying clean shaven Jesus in the middle of the last supper. I’m sitting nervously right next to Simon, under his wing as an associate judge as the calibration session starts. I know the Lion Nathan guys will be dark horses because I don’t get access to these blokes at all as small time media, so meeting them as a judge will be interesting. I’m standing out like a goth teen at a B&S ball and apart from a handful of people in the room I know well, there’s a heap of people in the room wondering who the hell I am and why the hell I’m there. They seem very relieved when I pick up on some DMS in a lager during the calibration session and nod approvingly, making darting looks for other nods, then bigger nodding before putting noses back into the glasses in unison. These guys are amazing. The attention and detail in the light lager and lager classes are impressive to say the least, seeing how they’re such incredibly hard classes to judge. The Lion Nathan guys brew most of it on the local market and it’s a bloody hard style to do well so they know where every fault is. At the end of those classes I have a headache and mentally exhausted. I feel like I’ve been trying to communicate telepathically with what seems like a hundred XL5 tasting glasses, each containing a splash of almost identical, restrained beer in each. It’s like trying to smell where a fly is in the room.

As a head judge, Simon Fahey from Coopers is polite, keen on a quick laugh, but ready to get down to business with a good degree of control. He’s a funny guy whom I’ve seen speak before in other official Coopers events but he knows his stuff without being a tosser. There’s no conferring in proper judging, but he’d check on my scoring once or twice during the day and give me a reassuring nod sometimes, letting me know how close I was to his final score on the last beer of a bracket. It was a relief. Previously I had a picture in my mind of someone out the back methodically dropping each of my score sheets into a shredder along with my invite for next year.

Then comes the media session. As soon as the TV crew’s bright lights turned on some of the big brewers retreat like vampires avoiding the sunshine, so the presenter collars Simon Sellick from BrewBoys. Simon’s one of the funniest blokes I’ve ever met and I was expecting an excellent interview from one of the smaller brewers. It turns out that he’s made on the best ales of the year that was in the final taste off. Instead the TV station cuts; a grunt, a serious face and a vowel from Simon Sellick into the interview and the presenter makes a joke about getting pissed and catching a cab at the end. We we’re all hoping the media attention would help the cause and get the beer show off the ground. The last thing we’d want to do is look like a bunch of pissed idiots. I see it on the tiny square TV screen in dad’s little hospital room later that evening and it barely shows more than the side of my arm in a shot so I’m relieved. On the wide screen at home that night I was right smack bang in the background laughing like a doofus at Simon Sellick’s jokes with a glass of beer in my hand… looking like a pissed idiot.

 

 

2013 News

Beer Radar for November 2013 WBM

By John Krüger

A few new beers have popped up on the radar and they’ll certainly get a hammering over the warmer weather.

The first is a new beer from Pikes in Clare. They already have a very drinkable stout and a cracker of a floral hoppy pilsener. Now they’ve added a Sparkling Ale to their line up. It’s a nice middle of the road beer, which could be sipped on a cool night or enjoyed by the pint on a warm day. It has a nice malty dry biscuit flavour and a lingering bitterness. It’s a medium bodied, nicely balanced ale with a clean yeast profile which really adds to the drinkability. It’s already available at multiple venues including the Kings Hotel in Adelaide as well as Leftbank Melbourne and Vic on the Park in Sydney.

The second new beer is from Mismatch Brewing Co. Aptly named Ewan Brewerton is heading up a small proactive group of “gypsy brewers” who have released their first beer, Archie’s Red Ale. It reminds me of a Little Creatures creation, it’s very well balanced while still delivering the goods. It leans slightly on the sweeter side but chock full of citrus hop flavour, complex malt character and mouth feel. It’s quite a big beer on the flavour delivery while still weighing in at only 5% alcohol. I’ve really enjoyed pouring Archie’s Red into a tulip glass and enjoying it as an after dinner beer. Giving credit where credit is due; Ewan insists on transparency to the point of even naming where the beer was brewed and ingredients used in press releases. Archie’s Red Ale isn’t available outside of South Australia just yet, but inside SA they’ve done a great job getting it in all the cool bars like Udaberri and craft beer friendly bottle shops like The Highway hotel.

The third beer to pop up is a new ale from James Squire. The Constable is described as a Copper Ale. I’m not sure if there’s a pun intended there or not but the people at Lion seem pretty happy with it. Samples weren’t available by deadline but an insider has smuggled some info out to me via SMS with the descriptors: English, floral, citrus, earthy, and an AVB of only 3.4%. This could join Little Creatures Rogers and Birbeck’s The Captain as lower alcohol alternatives that still have a decent whack of flavour. Just in time for the office Christmas party where you really should keep your pants on this year.

In other news, a surprising move; Owen Johnston, well known head brewer for MooBrew has taken up a position with HPA (Hop Products Australia) as Sales and Marketing Manager. For such a high profile brewer to take up a non-brewing role was certainly unexpected but Owen seems excited about his new job. “My role is definitely part travelling sales goon, but more importantly I should be able to provide brewers with a conduit to the technical information they need to get the best the character from our hops. Whether that is analytical information or advice on application in the brewery, I will be able to help brewers.” He says. The hop industry seems to be the fastest changing facet of beer at the moment. Although different varieties of barley are slowly being developed, new varieties of hybrid hops are popping up like pimples on a greasy teenager. Owen adds, “In terms of new hop varieties coming from our extensive breeding program, I look forward to sticking my nose into ‘farm business’.  It is definitely an area that generates a lot of interest from brewers as they search for the next point of difference for their beers.” We’re looking forward to hearing more from HPA and hopefully having the chance to brew with some of the latest new-age hybrid hops ourselves. Owen’s hoping he’ll still get a chance to pull on the steel-caps and knock out a batch of beer with brewing friends at some stage in the future.

 

Sour Beer is Here!

Beer Radar for WBM Nov 2012

(First published in Wine Business Magazine in 2012)

By John Krüger

Sour beer is here!

Hey hop jerks and beer hipsters, your out-of-balance hop heavy day in the sun is over. Over hopped beers are so passé. Prepare to have your senses blown away by a new beer sensation and it’s a favourite of mine; sour beers!

I’ll preface with a note; I love acidity. I love fresh Watervale and Eden Valley Rieslings. I love the way it sizzles on the tongue and almost feels like a light carbonation even though there isn’t any. A commercial brewer I know says “I’ve tried heaps of sour beers, they’re called home brews!” but in this instance, I’m talking deliberately soured, refreshing beers. I’m still yet to brew my sour beer collection, which will involve quarantining an outside bathroom for the soul purpose of brewing funky beers. Inoculating them (deliberately) with a blend of yeast, lactic bacteria and Brettanomyces. One brewer said to me “Don’t bring of that shit anywhere near my brewery. I wouldn’t be comfortable with someone drinking one of those in the car park!” another said “Bloody hell, you’d want to wash your hands with petrol before you touch anything else.”

Even though I’ve been researching sour and turbid mashing techniques, I still tried a few experiments adding increasing amounts of food grade lactic acid into my own wheat beers just to get a feel for ideal acid levels. Not surprisingly, the textbooks are right; the broad range of flavours in a real sour beer are soft and complex, not just sharp and one-dimensional from just adding lactic acid.

My most memorable commercial sour beer moment was in a little pub, in the middle of the day. It was almost empty and quiet. I asked the bartender for a bottle of Cantillon Geuze. He leaned forward and looked around the room asking, “Is it just for you?” as if I needed help in drinking the 375ml bottle.

“Bloody hell, how strong is it?” I asked.

He smiled and in a very thick accent explained, “Ah it’s not strong in alcohol but in flavour. It’s…. different.”

The Geuze smelled faintly of a blend of white vinegar and sour milk. It was intense, amazing and enjoyable, but the barman was right, it was a bottle for two people. It was more intense with each sip and I struggled to finish the bottle. This was no entry level sour beer, this was hard work but worth every bizarre sip. It was a thing of beauty and complexity.

My Australian made sour beer epiphany was the Watermelon Warhead from Feral brewing. I wanted a Berliner Weisse but was disappointed that it had fruit in it until I tasted it. It’s my 2012 beer of the year. Sensational. Can’t wait for a revisit. Bring me a keg of that over summer & I’ll be a happy man. It’s low alcohol, full of flavour and amazingly refreshing.

Another Aussie offering is Tasmania’s Van Dieman Brewing 2012 Hedgerow Autumn Ale. The beer has been matured for 6 weeks on a blend of rose hips, hawthorn and sloe berries with some of the blend having been aged in old Pinot barrels. It’s only got a hint of sourness on the nose and isn’t offensive. There’s a smell of oak and the first taste is earthy, spicy and dry. That’s the beauty of sours, the residual sugar that the yeast has missed is consumed by the bacteria. They tend to be sharp, very dry and refreshing.

There’s plenty of other Aussie offerings out there being brewed all the time so expect to see more. These beers need more time for the bacteria to do its work and sometimes involves blending soured and non-soured beers to achieve the right acidity levels, so don’t expect every brewery to knock one out in a hurry. For the artisan brewers, there’s an opportunity to show off unique regional yeasts and bacteria with the scary world of spontaneous ferments. When they’re bad, they’re really bad, but when they’re great, they’re absolutely wonderful.