As we release the second wave of our beers across the country, I wanted to give you a heads up on what we plan on releasing and what the beers are made of plus some other little experiments we have in the pipeline.
It’s a fact, we don’t release beer too often so when we do, we like to tell you about it!
SAISON SUNDAY – BRETT SAISON – 6%ABV
We’ve given the beer a name this time and we’ve changed it to 330ml bottles. Not because bottles are better than cans or for any other reason really than a lot of people that really like saison wanted to see it in a bottle and a smaller portion given the higher strength so we were happy to oblige as we quite like the Vichy bottle style and think it’s suited to the beer style. We’ve added rye and oats to a base of Belgian Pils malt in the hope that the rye and Saaz hop combo would add a little extra spice to the beer as sometimes the Brett can overpower the saison saccharomyces strains. We’re happy with the touch of spice on the tongue but it still has that soft underlying unmistakeable Brett character to make for a really deceiving and easy drinking beer. We love saison and we’re delighted to be releasing this beer which should be on the shelves of our usual stockists from now. This beer is about five months old at this stage and is tasting refreshing as-is but can be aged for further Brett character development. We asked our label designer to maintain the original colour structure of black and yellow but to introduce his own touch on it so thanks to Pat at No Apology Design for the creativity on the labels, another part of this beer we are delighted with and expect to see some story evolution from the label.
SOUR RIVIERE – SOUR SAISON – 4.8%ABV
Our first sour called Still Voices was a massive hit across the board, especially locally, but this time we’ve decided to ramp up the complexity of the sour. You may remember the first sour was made with Kveik + Lacto + Brett but this time we’ve wiped out all that and we’re using what is now our house strain for all beers comprising of multiple Brettanomyces strains mingled with a single Saison strain. Therefore, we’re more inclined to refer to this beer as a Sour Saison with a nod to our local river where we’ve harnessed some local wild yeast. No fresh hops were hurt in the making of this beer as we’ve used old oxidized and cheesy smelling hops left open to the elements for the last few years akin to the way Belgians brew albeit without a coolship (for now, watch this space). 0.1 grams per litre of old hops for the grams per litre heads. The beer was fermented hot for over 3 months and we feel has a complex character and lactic sourness that we are also delighted to release in cans as of now. If you like your sour beer with living yeast and lactobacillus then this is the beer for you! This beer takes time, no kettles we’re soured in the making of this beer.
BRETT PALE ALE – CITRA – 5.1%
The red label one! The first version of this beer was fermented 100% with Brettanomyces, I’m guessing the only beer ever brewed in Ireland fermented with Brett and Brett only and its flavor was intense! We dry hopped it heavily and it brought out a lot of flavor on a beer with an unexpected light body but this time it’s no longer 100% Brett. Similar malt grist but with an abundance of Citra backed up by a little Equanot and fermented with our now house yeast comprising of those various Bretts but with Saison strain in there too. We’ve added some wild card wild yeast in there as an outlier and eventually those strains will blend throughout the whole process. It’s an evolutionary brewing style that we’re more than happy to embrace. This beer is canned so should be released before Christmas when we’re happy with it but at the minute in the can it’s tasting like quite the Citra bomb!
THE WILD TABLE – TABLE BEER – 4%
We really wanted a super low ABV beer that is both complex but allows for sessionability and this beer is exactly what the doctor ordered! Tasting superb from the tank at the minute and cold crashing for a week before packaging next week this beer is also now fermented with our wild house mix. We decided to use all German malt and hops in the brewing process with Ariana hops the sole hop involved. We like to give a chance to the lesser known hops too and experiment with them and see what they bring to the party. Also getting kegged and canned very soon so keep your eyes peeled.
WHAT IS A HOUSE YEAST STRAIN?
As the yeast we use is a constantly evolving blend of numerous Brettanomyces strains and saccharomyces strains originating from saison our beers are constantly shifting profile. All the beers will finish up dry and have nice underlying fuity notes with a hint of spice. This doesn’t mean all our beers will taste the same but gives us a constant base from which all our styles emerge. It’s works really well from Pale Ales where it accentuates the hops to saison and gives added complexity to our sours which also contain multiple live lactobacillus strains.
We’re constantly adding new Brett strains to the mix to keep the flavor profile interesting and evolving.
It is most certainly an alternative approach to fermentation and beer styles and lets us make the saison we love but also the hoppy Citra bombs we also love!
Other beers we’ve released in small batch over the last few months were Red Bray IPA which was the winning entrant from the Midlands Beer Club homebrew competition which by now has all been drank in Dead Centre.
Our Ontario Wild Ale is currently on tap in The Crow Inn, Sheffield if anyone is in that area do pop in and have a taster. We brought that keg over a few months back when we attended Abbeydales Funk Fest which comprised of the UK’s finest alternative breweries when it comes to Brettanomyces and sour fermentation plus us representing Ireland! We were proud to attend and hope for invites again next year.
We also fermented a Kellerbier at 36c with a yeast strain we’ve been playing about with called Oslo. It kicks off super clean lager fermentation profile and finished up within days compared to the weeks/months traditional lagers take to ferment. It’s one we’re keen to produce a larger batch of so also watch this space for some clean and crisp pils emerging from this stable in the coming months.
The same yeast was used to also make a Nordic Oatmeal Stout which will be coming to a festival near you soon so we’re not giving away too much more on that one but if you want to try a stout fermented at near 40c then keep an eye out for this one!
Our beers take time but we’re passionate and believe in alternative fermentation.
Thanks for reading.
