Beer and wine hybrid created for first time

The limited-edition fusion brew, named New Era, is an attempt by brewer Dan Gilliland to bring together the best of the brewer and vintner worlds as part of a range of one-off experimental beers - Traffic Street Specials.

Starting with a traditional dry-hopped ale, made with fruity Yakima Valley hops, the base beer is fermented before it is combined with Italian Pinot Grigio grape juice and Champagne yeast and fermented for a second time.  

"The sugar content in the grape juice combined with the aggressive Champagne yeast - it ate through pretty much all the residual sugars, pushing the alcohol levels up to 7.7%. This is good medium ground between wine and beer,” Gilliland explained.

“What we have now is not a beer nor a wine, but something that shifts between the two – the cool citrusy hops play off the warm and heady gooseberry notes from the grapes, leaving a tart, dry finish from the wine and one final sweet kick from the malts.

“Admittedly that sounds like there’s a lot going on, but the marriage works and I’m really excited for people to try it for themselves. To my knowledge, this is the first time a beer-wine hybrid has gone into cask, but if you know of any others get in touch on Twitter @Traffic_Street."

New Era will be available in pubs across Nottinghamshire throughout the winter, but is extremely limited in quantity.

All that remains is whether to call the hybrid ‘bwine’ or ‘weer’…