Igår bryggde Alvinne sin sista brygd för året och det har varit ett intensivt sådant för detta lilla magiska bryggeri från Moen i Västflandern.

Emellertid fortsätter bryggeriet med en uppföljningslåda innehållande unika brygder i små kvantiteter som skeppas ut till en exklusiv skara under namnet Alvinne’s Fellowship of Exceptional Ales.

Efter många om och men har jag äntligen beställt en upplaga av dessa småskaligt bryggda skönheter och för er som likt mig vill unna er en julklapp så finns det ett fåtal medlemskap kvar. Årets låda har en liten annan sammansättning än föregående box som innehöll nio olika brygder på småflaskor. I år, eller snarare 2020, får man istället fem storflaskor och en liten samt eventuellt någon rest från 2018. Nedan har ni bryggarnas egna ord på vad som erbjuds:

Cuvée Sofie Schaarbeekse Kriek Framboos 2018 – 8% ABV – 75cl.

”This beer is a classic and the reason behind the birth of this concept. It’s already the 6th year we make this beer. We aged our Blond Flemish Sour Ale ‘Phi’ from 8 months on a 2012 Hungarian Oak Bourgogne/Vosne-Romanée barrel from Domaine Noellat Michel. We later added 20kg handpicked Schaarbeekse Kriek and 5kg handpicked Raspberries. More raspberries will be added soon, these fruits will macerate for over 5 months. The beer has been fermented with our own wild house yeast culture Morpheus.”

Cuvée Anna Plum & Blackberries – 7.5% ABV – 75cl.

”Cuvée Anna is a Flemish Catalan Sour Ale aged on red wine barrels from Château l’Ermitage. Cuvée Anna is the outcome of our brew with Anna and Anna. The beer has been fermented with our wild house yeast culture Morpheus. We kegged an exclusive single barrel version of Cuvée Anna that premiered at Borefts Bier Festival 2019. We will give some more time to 4 other barrels, those will be bottled later. One barrel will end up in a Fellowship project with some fresh Plums and Blackberries. The beer will have aged for over a year in total, the fruits will have macerated for over 4 months. At the moment we added 15kg of handpicked fresh Plums and 3 kg of handpicked fresh Blackberries to the Fellowship project barrel, more will be added soon.”

(Här råkar jag veta att de har tillsatt 10 kg blåbär efter att texten skrevs….)

Cuvée De Mortagne & Cuvée d’Erpigny Figs – 12% ABV – 75cl.

”We have blended our Belgian Quad Land Van Mortagne 12.8% and our Barley Wine Pays d’Erpigny 11% and put them on a Red Wine St-Emilion, Amercian Oak barrel. The beer has been aging for 8 months now and will get some more time. We added freshly dried figs that we picked and dried ourself. ”

Cuvée De Mortagne Double Barrel Aged Armagnac & White Port – 12.8% – 75cl.

”In October 2018 we added our Belgian Quad Land Van Mortagne 12.8% ABV to a 400L French Oak Armagnac Barrel. After 11 months we transferred the beer to 2 smaller White Port Barrels. It’s the first time we are using White Port Barrels, the beer will age for 5 more months on those. ”

Brett Rye Tripel Vermouth BA – 8.5% – 75cl.

”In April 2019 we added a Brett Rye Tripel to a 500L Vermouth Barrel. The beer will have aged for over 8 months in this first use Vermouth barrel. The outcome tastes like a natural wine. It’s the first time we use Vermouth barrels, we have also put our Belgian Quad on a Vermouth barrel at the same time, it has just been released as Cuvée De Mortagne Vermouth.

This beer is a replacement of what would have been a brew with the Fellows. Because of certain circumstances we won’t be able to brew a beer with the Fellows in December this year that would have been part of the Fellowship 2019 pack. In stead we will do a brew with the fellows during the launch of the 2019 Fellowship pack in Februari 2020. This brew will be part of the 2020 Fellowship pack.”

Barley Wine Eisbock – 20% – 20cl.

”In Januari 2019 we added an adapted recipe of our previous Barley Wine Pays d’Erpigny to a 225L American Oak Red Wine St-Emilion Barrel. After 10 months we took out the beer and started freezing it. Once frozen we let it defrost and only took out about 30% of the actual volume. This leaves us with a strong liquor of the beer with an ABV of 20%. We used this technique before with our ‘Moenshine’. We also Eisbocked some Pays d’Erpigny and blended it together with the Eisbock of the Barrel Aged version.”

För er som inte tänker beställa en låda men ändå är sugna på att smaka dessa häftiga produkter kan jag glädja er med att jag tänkte likt i år ha en provning någon gång under 2020.

Tack för uppmärksamheten/

Jens Skrubbe