Side project is a brewery known more for panache in execution and excess in monoculture rather than nuanced gentle representations to style, so a soft biere de pays gave me pause knowing their bold framework of tart farmhouse ales. This did not disappoint and is executed in a strangely restrained fashion out of comport with the rest of their catalogue. The nose is pear and peach blossom, a touch of lemon zest and a faintly brackish salinity in the waft. The taste is exceptionally refreshing and evokes Carmelized pear, lemon merengue, fresh cut grass and a sort of Riesling oakiness that is soft and diaphanous on the gum line. The acidity never oversteps it’s boundaries and serves as a supporting character rather than chewing the scenery. The mouthfeel is like biting into a fresh nectarine and washes away clean with a hard alkaline profile that leaves nothing residual on the palate and begs for larger swallows.

It’s hard to beat sweet succor and jokes when something is this gentle and well done, I could go for some midget porn references or try and work up some child skin callbacks, but we shall live to yuk another day. Suffice it to say, this is a phenomenal beer and oddly the most overlooked from the Side Project releases, which is quite the travesty.