At the 2023 African Beer Cup, this beer won the African Celebration Award, which goes to the highest-scoring beer that uses traditional African ingredients; it also won a gold medal in the Alternative Fermentables Beer category.
Wild African Soul starts as a batch of umqombothi, but after the initial fermentation it is blended in a wine barrel with saison for secondary fermentation and maturation. According to Soul Barrel founder-brewer Nick Smith, the idea is to explore the similarities between American-style mixed-culture beers and traditional sorghum beer—both often featuring spontaneously introduced yeast and lactic fermentation.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.055, base saison
FG: 1.012, base saison after primary, ~1.000 post-maturation
IBUs: N/A
ABV: ~7%