Wild Creatures WILDFIRE Oak Aged Raspberry Wild Ale 75 cl / 6.5 % Tschechien

Even in Czechia, a country where its own beer culture, dominated by bottom-fermented beer styles, is of outstanding importance, there has been a brewery specializing in lambic for several years. We are talking about Wild Creatures and its creative head, master brewer and master blender, Jitka Ilčíková. The brewery is located in the heart of the Moravian wine region, and just a few meters away from the brewery are the company's own vineyards. They are located on the slopes of the Pálava hills, and the brewery uses its own grapes to produce grape lambics. Apricots are also grown, and most of the fruit used in their beers is picked just a few kilometers away. Whole fruits, including the pits, are used to ferment the beer.

Just like Belgian lambic, Wild Creatures beer is brewed during the cold months. The wort is cooled in a cooling vessel and infected by local microflora, affectionately referred to by Jitka as wild creatures. As the brewery is located in the middle of vineyards, Wild Creatures Lambics are more wine-like compared to the Lambics of the Zenna Valley. On Untappd, Wild Creatures is the second highest rated brewery in Czechia.

Spontaneously fermented lambic beers form a microcosm of their own within Belgian beer culture. They are considered particularly natural, complex, and high-quality, and some even describe them as magical due to their uncontrolled spontaneous fermentation. After this beer style was doomed to extinction in the 1980s, it has made a furious comeback in recent decades and has been fascinating new generations of beer lovers ever since. Every year in September, they celebrate Zwanze Day, created by Cantillon, all over the world, and every two years, the Tour de Geuze attracts thousands of tourists to rural Payottenland. And even at Café In De Verzekering Tegen De Grote Dorst (“In the insurance against the great thirst”), named the best beer bar in the world by ratebeer.com from 2014 to 2020, Lambic beers play a major role on the extensive menu. No wonder, then, that this specialty, which has been awarded the Protected Geographical Indication label, is inspiring more and more brewers in other countries as well.