Mirabo - Black Double IPA

Beer style: Doppelbock with mirabelle plums

If you walk through Europe in August and September, orchards, hedges and field edges are dotted with yellow The mirabelle plum harvest season has begun and the small, round fruits make branches and twigs bend with their plump weight The stone fruit belongs to the plum family, but is somewhat smaller and usually quince gold or red In our latitudes, the mirabelle plum is processed into jam or schnapps, but you can also cook a fine compote or fill sweet dumplings with it

The Kuehn Kunz Rosen brewery in Mainz has used the fruit for a completely different purpose: In the tradition of their craft, the brewers turn it into a tasty beer

Their MiraBo is a massive doppelbock that warms body and soul with the soft sweetness and fruity acidity of the mirabelle plum The full 8.0% alcohol content helps significantly to transport the late summer aroma of the fruit into the beer, the brewers matured the doppelbock on the freshly harvested mirabelle plums The fruit not only lends the beer its flavor, it also gives it a generous portion of wild yeasts These populate the air in orchards and like to get stuck on the skins of fruit In MiraBo, they provide musty notes and support the brewer's yeast during fermentation