Blood Orange Sour

Introducing Blood Orange Sour, created in collaboration with our wonderful neighbours Locksley Distilling Co. and a fresh release from our Funk Dungeon mixed fermentation project.

This special beer has been made with Sicilian Moro blood oranges, which are left over from the production of Locksley’s absolutely delicious “Morocello” citrus liqueur (which you can read more about and get yourself a bottle of here). They only need the zest for this unique twist on a limoncello, meaning the rest of the fruit is in need of a loving home – which is where we come in! Reducing food waste and making something else delicious from this fantastic produce – it’s a win win.

We added the flesh of the fruit (approximately 150g per litre) directly into barrel with a simple sour base beer, where it spent a year ageing in a single French White Oak barrel with our house brett blend. We chose UK grown Opus hops, which lend notes of sticky orange to boost and back up the citrus character. The fruit gives a fresh, sharp acidity to the beer along with a gentle blush of soft pink hue. The finished product is tantalisingly tart, coming in at 6.0% ABV and is both vegan and gluten free.

Most of the base beer, a straightforward kettle sour, had been destined for use in our Unbeliever series – but we brewed some extra wort to ferment and store in barrel ready for something special to come along… and the Moro oranges definitely qualify. The result is not hugely funky but it is SOUR, coming in at a sharp pH of 3.3. Distinct orange flavours are complemented by a light sherbet berry character and a bit of funk in the finish. Tart, light and refreshing.

For the illustration, our designer James took the Blood Orange name literally, along with the thirst-quenching nature of the beer, creating a vampire skellie! James says of the inspiration, “a vampire was the character I felt fit the image of drinking a “blood-like” liquid, with the blood orange resembling an anatomical heart at first glance, but without being too gruesome!”

This beer was originally previewed at Little Earth Fest last year, and the first keg of the finished beer was released at 2024’s Indie Beer Feast. 750ml bottles are now available from a selection of independent retailers and via our online shop.

And just by way of a small post script to this particular chapter of our Funk Dungeon story… the bottling of this special release took place around the same time as we were receiving this year’s batch of fruit from Locksley’s, and so the cycle begins again! We’ve chosen to add the Moro oranges into a heritage grain saison wort this year, so it will be super interesting to see how the flavour develops in a different base beer. Watch this space, coming not-very-soon…