BEER NO EVIL RIVER OF INSANITY
A dart in one hand and this beer in the other; it’s a great way to have a pointed - pardon the pun - conversation about life and all its ups and down.
Origin – Adelaide, South Australia
ABV- 7.5%
Size- 375mL can
Style- Double Indian Pale Ale
Let’s be honest, we all know that any story of a river voyage worth publishing must be a doomed expedition in which the characters alternately die, go mad, get lost, get eaten by the natives - or eat each other! - or otherwise barely live to tell the tale. One such fable is the true story of Yossi Ghinsberg and his fellow companions, who set out for an adventure in an uncharted area of Bolivian Amazon after a random stranger promised to lead them to a lost tribe and a river of gold …what could go wrong? Travelling the swollen Tuichi River, their raft hit a rock. Ghinsberg went overboard and was washed over the falls below. Surviving, he spent the next 20 days trying to find his way out, all the while a skin-rotting fungus ate away at his flesh, reducing the last three days of his ordeal to an agonising crawl on his hands and knees.
Paul Sparkes, the founder of Beer No Evil, is no stranger to doomed quests. He spent over a decade as a full-time musician playing relentless gigs in search of even a creek of gold. Managing only to find a river of insanity, he had no option but to fall back onto his old information technology job to pay the bills. To help from going mad, Paul turned to home brewing. As fate would have it, this fork in the river was to become a defining moment in his life. Despite taking a combined 10 years of studying brewing, work experience at Mismatch and Pirate Life, and gypsy brewing batch upon batch, Paul finally found his gold, along with both silver and bronze at various beer awards.
The latter two medals were awarded to this liquid tribute to Ukraine’s metal band Jinger, whose song Outlander tells of a river of insanity we float down from time to time. A single hop IPA showcasing Paul’s favourite hop variety, Mosaic, the malt bill is simple, allowing the hops to take centre stage with a uniquely kaleidoscopic array of aromas: candied fruit, juicy mandarins, grassiness, berries. Delivered with balance, there's little in the way of bitterness, resulting in another big, bold, mental-inspired beauty to add to Beer No Evils' impressive line-up.
Ghinsberg had all but abandoned hope when one of his travelling companions found him. I'm sure he would have loved the opportunity to wash away that river's memories with one of these Rivers!
