Our beer x wine collab with Alpha Box & Dice
We made some sours with our winemaker mates! Image: Yeah Rad
Wine and beer lovers unite! After three long years of booze-blending wizardry, our collab with Adelaide-based winemakers Alpha Box & Dice is now available in the form of two VERY limited-release brews - a Semillon Sour and Pinot Noir Sour.
As fans (and loyal customers) of the South Aus grape-wranglers for some time, we’re stoked to finally let these brews out of the barrel - but first, we thought we’d intro you to our talented mates from the south and share a bit more around how these unique brews came to be.
Who are ALPHA BOX & DICE?
Championing innovative winemaking techniques since 2008, Alpha Box and Dice have become pretty damn good at making the most of some of South Australia’s alternative (slightly cooler) grape varieties.
Under head winemaker Sam Berketa, the crew have extended their commitment to tinkering with the norm by embarking on the ambitious ‘Alphabet of wine’ - a collection of winemaking projects with each ‘letter’ celebrating a different style found in the state’s famous wine regions, including McLaren Vale, Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley.
Fellow lovers of getting the highest-quality products into the hands of drinkers, the team work year-round with growers across the state to ensure that each glass is an accurate representation of the fruit and growing environment used to produce it.
the Collab
We love the community that the AB&D crew have built through their love of showcasing their South Aus backyard to the world. When the opportunity to collaborate and learn from Sam and the team came our way, we were pretty bloody excited. With a distinct lack of grapevines in our Newtown brewery’s herb garden, we sent the team a coupla’ kegs of the good stuff to play around with instead - including Newtowner and our ‘From Where You’d Guava Be’ Brewer’s B-Side.
After three years and a fruity, fizzing, festival of fermentation, the resulting 1300 hand-bottled blends are a tasty celebration of mates, blurred style lines and unlike anything that’s previously donned the YH name.
Image: Yeah Rad
TASTING NOTES
Using a blend of both YH beers, the 6.3% Semillon Sour has been aged in the warmth of AB&D wine barrels and seasoned with the team’s signature Lazarus Bianco white. With the aroma exhibiting notes of melon and apricot, the palate is perfectly balanced between the racing acidity of a granny smith apple and nutty, malty characters - finishing dry and leaving you wanting more.
The 7% Pinot Noir Sour is a complex blend between classic Pinot Noir and Newtowner, appearing dusty red and with plenty of carbonation. The aroma is a balance of funkiness from the Brettanomyces fungus (DW, it’s a good fungus) and bright red fruits, with floral notes as well as an earthy character from the Pinot. The palate is fruity and long, with a mix of sour cherry, raspberry and a nutty undertone from the malt, finishing with a subtle bitterness from the hops
Where to buy?
With just 1300 bottles in existence, this one won’t be around for long! Find some bottles in the below fridges:
Alpha Box & Dice Cellar Door
8 Olivers Rd, McLaren Vale SA 5171
Clever Little Tailor
19 Peel St, Adelaide SA 5000
Carwyn Cellars
877 High St, Thornbury VIC 307
TASTING! 5-7pm on Thursday, March 9.
McCoppins Abbotsford
501/509 Victoria St, Abbotsford VIC 3067
McCoppins Fitzroy
165 Johnston St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
McCoppins Hawthorn
498 Tooronga Rd, Hawthorn East VIC 312
Liquid HQ
670 Chapel St, South Yarra VIC 3141
Young Henrys Tasting Bar
76 Wilford St, Newtown NSW 2042
Happy Boy
East St, Fortitude Valley, QLD 4006