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I just stumbled upon "Melbourn Brothers" "Spontaneous Fermentation Strawberry" beer from Samford in Lincolnshire England.

The label indicates that the brewery was established in 1825 and rebuilt in 1876; I'm really flaberghasted, I didn't know that there were breweries with a history of sponteneously fermented beers outside of Belgium. -Is this brewery the real deal or is there some sort of funny business going on here? -I saw a bottle of Samuel Smith's Strawberry beer that is brewed by "Melbourn Brothers" can anyone tell me about this beer or the brewery that made/makes it?

It's honestly the most drinkable spontaneously fermented beer that I've had; it has a lot less bacterial "funkiness" than most of the spontaneously fermented beers that I've had. It definitely smells like lambic and fresh, overly ripe strawberries. It is definitely tart but is still somehow sweeter than most fruit-flavored guezes that I've had; the strawberry flavor really tastes like real strawberries; not like berry flavored candy syrup like Lindemans... (sorry, my personal opinion)

-The combination of the sweete strawberry and tart "lambic" makes the beer taste strawberry rhubarb pie in a bottle. (This is EXACTLY what it tastes like; it was driving me crazy so I edited the post to add this.) -Not sure if rhubarb pie is a European tradition that made to to America or if it's just one of those weird American pies; so I appologize if the reference isn't common.

Now I just want to know more about this beer and brewery.


Adam

rhubarb tart is very irish <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

It looks like the Samuel Smith’s are not spontaneous fermented as I have seen a quote

"These Samuel Smith’s labeled products are said to have been fermented with “complex multiple yeast strains” and do not have the tell-tale “barnyard” characteristics typically left behind by the organisms of spontaneous fermentation."

Also traditional cider is spontaneous fermented with yeast that reside in the pressing equipment and such, so its not a massive leap with a fruit beer?