Brewery: Bryggverket / Tempel
Country: Sweden
Size: 33cl
ABV: 5.7%
Price: 34kr
Systembolaget: 31118
I really like it when people collaborate on projects. You can get two completely different sets of ideas and watch them slowly fuse together into a truly amazing finished product. It can also happen that it goes in completely the opposite direction though and the two sides just don’t meld as well as they really should. Breweries are always getting together to try different combinations and recipes and I wanted to pull in another beer that helped showcase this. The Surpéne is a joint beer brewed by Tempel from Uppsala and the local Umeå based Bryggverket. They have worked together on a number of beers and I wanted one to show off what the guys could do. It has culminated in a sour beer that all involved should be proud of (even if the cartoon demons junk had to be censored to make it onto the Systembolaget shelves).
The beer had a soft orange colour to it, almost like nypon soup in a way. It was cloudy and gave a thin white head that disappeared quite rapidly. The smell was fresh yet sour, with the rhubarb and citric acid tones really coming through. There was small berry and mango hints in the background too. The beer was definitely sour, with the rhubarb to the forefront along with apricots and a good acidic hit that died off quite quickly on the tongue. The hops were pushed somewhat into the background. It was quite drying on the palate as it sucked all the saliva from the mouth, but still quite refreshing. The aftertaste wasn’t particularly long lasting but what was there was pleasant.
If you like tart, fruit beers then this is one you will get along well with. I enjoyed it but I maybe couldn’t drink many before it got too much for the stomach. Still, it’s another success in my eyes by these two breweries. With more collaborations to come, I look forward to seeing other delights this partnership will produce.