The Summertown Aristologist and Uraidla Brewery Have Teamed Up on an Easy-Drinking Session Ale for Vintage Season

There are a lot of things many of us take for granted here in SA. Like having one of Australia’s best restaurants just over a kilometre down the road from one of Australia’s best breweries. Luckily for us, the folks behind these venues – The Summertown Aristologist and the Uraidla Brewery – are aware of this and have decided to take advantage of it.

The result? Summertown Ale: a low-ABV, unfiltered session ale made by Uraidla Brewery in collaboration with the wine minds at the Aristologist.

“We wanted something that was going be quite well suited to vintage [the season winemakers begin harvesting and fermenting fruit],” Uraidla Brewery’s Oscar Matthews tells Broadsheet. “It’s that time of the year, so that’s where we got the idea of producing a low-alcohol variant. It’s a very sessionable little beer”.

After long, hot days of picking, pressing and toiling in the winery, winemakers aren't likely to reach for a wine. Instead, they’re drinking crisp, cold beers.

Aristologist co-owner Aaron Fenwick, who’s currently (knee) deep in vintage, pressing grapes for his Château Comme Ci, Comme Ça wine label , says he wanted a low-ABV beer he could drink while working.

“Not hectic hops, not hectic anything. Just … a nice easy-drinking beer,” says Fenwick. “We’re gonna make some more of it to keep it rolling. The first batch is 2000 litres, so we have roughly 150 cases and some kegs as well.”

In line with the Aristologist ethos, all the beer’s ingredients are organic and sustainably sourced; the pilsner malt is from Voyager, a craft maltster from New South Wales (recommended by Topher Boehm of the revered Wildflower Brewing), and the organic hops were procured from across the Tasman.

“We were looking to source some Aussie hops, but unfortunately [due to a shortage as well as a lack of organic growers] we were unable to find anything, so we ended up selecting some New Zealand hops,” says Matthews.

“The beer uses organic-grown Wakatu and Nelson Sauvin hops, which are both quite fruit-driven, tropical hops, but they still provide the ale with a nice citrus character.

“I like the New Zealand hops because, unlike the more popular US hops, they have a bit more earthiness and restraint to them – which is perfect, as the beer is quite delicate and has a bit more of a citrus character than Future Light [Uraidla’s other low-ABV beer].”

The pilsner malt gives the beer a bright, golden appearance, but – as with many Uraidla beers – Matthews uses an east coast ale yeast strain to provide a slight haze and augment the fruit-forward, tropical flavour profile.

For now, the Summertown Ale will be tapped at the Uraidla pub and the Aristologist only. A small batch of cans will be available at the pub to takeaway, and they may venture out to other Hills venues and bottle shops in time. Cans will also be available to drink at the restaurant.

Matthews and Fenwick are sold on the concept of a “Hills exclusive” beer, so you’re unlikely to find it many places down the freeway.

“The kegs are only at a couple places in the Hills, but we’ll send a few of the cans around to people,” says Fenwick. “We want to keep the kegs as a local Hills thing.”

But the concept is one the pair hopes to develop further. “It’s the beginning of a relationship with Oscar and the beer world for us,” says Fenwick. “We’re talking about doing more projects, more farm ales and wilder things, and different things that are a little out of Oscar’s world but something he’s interested in playing around with.”

“I’d definitely like to either keep producing this beer, or maybe have it become part of a series of little releases, but it might not always be the same beer,” adds Matthews.

“I really like the idea of producing a Hills-focused beer, and we [the Uraidla and Aristologist teams] agree that we’d definitely like to push for sourcing 100 per cent of the ingredients from South Australia, to bring everything as close to home as we can.”

The Aristologist Ale is currently on tap and in cans at the Uraidla Brewery and The Summertown Aristologist.

uraidlabrewery.com.au
thesummertownaristologist.com