Whenever I see heavily fruited golden sours in clear glass with clean white labels, I can practically envision the marketing director pleading with the brunch casual consumer. HEY YOU LIKE ORANGE WINE, what about uh, ITS JUST LIKE PET NAT. It feels targeted. I fabricate ideas about the intent of the product and it feels like it is beer aimed at the natural wine segment, men wearing more than 4 rings, long sloping stetson hats, knit cardigans, the clackity clack of French tips with nail art awaiting the belini refill.

However, I am often wrong. Sometimes these beers are fantastic and serve a less cynical purpose, they are just good. Ambitious ales is a place I knew about for hazy IPAs, not this Tired Handsy type of stuff.

The high abv/high sugar market is usually flooded with the type of beer consumer who doesn’t own a bed frame and has that one plaid pillow. Austere and sad, purpose driven existence. This beer feels more like one of those black felt boards with white letters pushed into them. Esty nectarines incarnate, a low abv dream journal with “MANIFEST PEDIO” underlined several times. It’s extremely dry but somehow with almost zero body doesn’t let either the fruit pith or the acidity dominate. It is Kerns meets Powerade, electrolytes and Sancerre.

How is this happening in Long Beach? Perhaps I am not well qualified to represent the LBC.

This beer ends up being exceptional at spinning the red wine barrel thread for dryness, fruit for sweetness, and a pedio/canned brett drei for a wisp of brie rind complexity. It is the beer equivalent of “THE BAR IS IN HELL” and “This triggered my fight or flight” and other canned responses in the comment section.

This furthers my agenda of getting people to drink grisettes and also wards off scurvy from ochre mouthed dudes who still shop at Tilly’s as an adult. This brings everyone to the table. It’s simple and comforting in a disturbing way like Youtube ASMR videos of fishnets tearing or pushing a red hot knife through objects.

The world is reopening slowly, and these are the beers that will structure those coveted first gatherings. I am here for 3.5% adventures.