Motley Cru surfaces just once a year, to commemorate our anniversary.

The 2014 edition is an IPA aged in barrels with Brett for just over 14 months, transferred to a fermentor, dry-hopped with a healthy dose of Citra and Mosaic, before conditioning in the bottle with fresh champagne yeast for another 2 months. Given the long-term aging that the beer went through over most of 2013, it has emerged deeply oaky in both its aroma and flavour, exhibiting bold vanillins and tannins. It’s extended affair with Brett contributes soft smoke and cherry flavours, and a characteristic dryness. And yet, the dry-hopping applied another, strangely complimentary layer to the beer, imparting intense aromatics of fresh lychee and fuzzy peaches. The resulting Cru is beautifully juicy, with a bright orange colour, thick mousse-like head, and muted bitterness.

It ranks very high on the yum scale, can out-perform lab mice in obstacle courses, and may encourage the use of profanities, sometimes even consecutively. Fresh bottles display beautiful dry hop notes -- aged versions have very little hop presence and an intensified brett character.