Saturday 22 October 2016

Collective Arts Art-Brewing: Collective Project / Sour Pumpkin Saison

It's best to embrace new brewing trends wholeheartedly as they come along, because you never know how long they'll last. Sour beers won me over remarkably quickly – the flavour profile is pretty radically different from what I generally drink, with even my beloved over-hopped IPAs sporting entirely new sensory combinations. Not to mention, Coriolis Effect from Sawdust City carried me through seeing Corb Lund at the Townehouse, letting me deny every impulse my body could throw out and actually stay up until 1:30 AM for the third encore, without having to resort to drinking coffee (or, gah, regular light beer) at a concert.

Sour Pumpkin Saison from Hamilton's Collective Arts promises a triple whammy of yeast, acidity and autumn spice, and makes good on at least two of those. As always with Collective Arts (it seems like it's kinda their thing), Sour Pumpkin Saison has eye-catching labels – the latest run of Ransack the Universe had tigers – but they appear to have gone with a single design for their Hallowe'en offering, with a cat-masked girl on a (presumably haunted) bicycle providing a spooky counterpoint to the carefree lass who adorns Red Racer.
Pouring a Sour Pumpkin Saison immediately rewards you with aromas of light brown bread, allspice, and the distinctive sour ale sharpness like cracking into a jar of homemade pickles. Allspice is the most evident spice both in the head and body, as is characteristic of an Ontario pumpkin spice ale, but harmonizes very interestingly with the sourness and backing spices (particularly cinnamon) to give an impression of sumac – and leading me to wonder if a pumpkin spice beer that actually did contain sumac could potentially work, even as a non-sour. The overall aroma comes across as almost condiment-y, and I'm already thinking of noodle bowls this could greatly enliven in place of sherry. Semi-relatedly, a quarter-can of Lake of Bays Brewing Wild North Pumpkin Ale (review to follow) made for some outstanding molé-inspired refried beans.
Lightly carbonated with short-lived foam, Sour Pumpkin Saison is similar in heft, colour and texture to perennial favourite Highballer Pumpkin Ale from Grand River Brewing – but that's largely the extent of the similarities. Sour Pumpkin Saison has a strong, pleasant 'fermenty' taste, with aromatic yeastiness like light brown bread – think fresh 60% whole wheat – and a sourness more reminiscient of straight lemon juice than the vinegar or sauerkraut-like tang of other sours I've recently enjoyed. The sour aspect dominates on the palate, but there is a subtle, earthy hint of pumpkin throughout, and the spices become more prominent on the aftertaste – particularly clove, barely noticeable at first but outlasting the other flavours in the end. As I anticipated, hops ended up being a minimal presence, hard to distinguish behind all of the more dominant tastes. Ultimately, the spices don't stand out as much as I'd prefer – developing that nascent sumac note further could have had interesting results indeed.

For the strength and depth of flavour, Sour Pumpkin is surprisingly easy-drinking; sourness and lingering yeast build up on the palate, but this is balanced by long-lasting, astringent clove. I still find the word “sessionable” inexplicably loathsome, but I have to admit it applies – Collective Arts' first pumpkin-spiced offering joins Wild North Pumpkin in a category I used to populate with Highballer alone – a novelty (not that this is an inherently bad thing, see first paragraph) flavoured beer that can carry an entire evening on its own.


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