Goose Island has released a selection of its award-winning barrel-aged beers including four of the Sour Sisters quintet; Lolita, Halia, Madame Rose and Gillian for the first time in Australia this month.
The tart and experiential fleet of Belgian-style ales are some of Goose Island’s tastiest. Each loaded with copious amounts fresh fruits and fermented wild yeasts, and aged in wine barrels between 7 months to a year, the distinctive flavours of each of the variants make for some of the most unique sour beers out in the market.
Goose Island who is internationally renowned for their barrel-aged beers, first released the Sour Sisters range as part of its Barrel House Collection in 2009. Perfected over time, the brewery releases a new vintage of each variant yearly, with recipes slightly evolving across the range.
Tif Waldron, Goose Island’s Ambassador, is incredibly excited to see the range released in Australia.
“The Sour Sisters from Goose Island collectively represent some of the best modern fruit barrel-aged beers in the world. They have varied and interesting taste profiles, beautiful bottles, great stories and pair amazingly well with food.”
Lolita: 7.9% ABV | 32 IBU
Lolita is a Belgian style pale ale fermented with wild yeast and aged on almost 14,000 kilograms of fresh raspberries. This sour has aromas of fresh raspberries, bright jammy fruit flavours and a crisp, refreshing body.
Halia: 7.7% ABV | 10 IBU
Halia is a fruit-forward and slightly funky farmhouse ale aged in wine barrels with more than five tonnes of whole white peaches. Bright in colour, it is effervescent with ripe and juicy peach notes in a soft, hazy body that finishes slightly tart and sweet.
Madame Rose: 6.7% ABV | 25 IBU
The richest of all the Sisters, Madame Rose is a Belgian style brown ale fermented with a slew of wild yeast aged on over eighteen kilograms of cherries, in every wine barrel for a year. It has layers of malty complexity, sour cherry, spice and wood notes.
Gillian: 8.9% ABV | 20 IBU
Gillian is a Belgian-style farmhouse ale is jam-packed with strawberries (over 4.5 tonnes), combined with white pepper, honey and champagne yeast to make a harmonised blend. It is slightly tart, and pleasantly sweet, in a refreshing effervescent body.
The Sour Sisters range is available now in a limited release nationally from selected Dan Murphy’s, Vintage Cellars, and online through the stores as well as Boozebud.