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Embracing Inefficiency in Craft Brewing

Good To Know

I used to do a talk titled "Embracing Homebrewing" (here it is on the Beersmith Podcast). Basically, rather than worry about replicating the exact process/results of a craft brewery, enjoy the things that you can do on a small scale without regulatory oversight (dosing in spirits, ice distillation, foraging) or  economic pressures (expensive ingredients, not worrying about extract efficiency) etc.

The more great brewers I talk to... the more I realize that Scott and I run Sapwood Cellars like a big homebrewing operation more than a small craft brewery. We're lucky that we have enough support and direct sales that don't have to worry too much about cost, time, or efficiency. This post dives into that a little deeper on the benefits of inefficiency using the six beers included in the upcoming shipment of our Out-of-State Shipping Club as examples! 


Variability: Flemish Gothic

Most mixed-ferm breweries have a single house culture they pull off a tank or set of barrels or a specific commercial microbe blend that they add to every batch of a given beer. It makes a lot of sense, it promotes consistency and you don't have to worry about blending/attenuation. However, for me it lacks the dynamic flavor options and variety in finished beers I love. Every time we brew a new sour base beer, we select a barrel with a culture that suits it, and add some to primary (along with a healthy Saccharomyces pitch). 

Flemish Gothic is a beer we blended from three different wine barrels, with three different base sour reds (Standard Red, Provisional Strength, Vin De Céréale) each with a different culture. That allowed us to dial in the acidity, malt balance, and level of Brett expression. It worked out that we did a three-year blend rather than the standard old/young blend done by Rodenbach and many other Flemish Reds. 


Flemish Gothic Tasting Notes

Smell - Real range, right from the start. Honey, leather, blackberry fruit leather, some dried hay of hops. Cocoa, Tootsie Pop. I could see Balsamic, but without the vinegar or nail polish. 

Appearance - Beautiful ruby red. Good clarity. Stable off-white foam, pours three fingers. 

Taste - Bright lactic acidity, with dried cherries in the finish. No acetic harshness in the finish. Mild perceived fruity sweetness. A little damp oak, but not aggressively woody despite the extended aging thanks to the well used barrels. Could have even used a little more. Slight licorice as it warms. 

Mouthfeel - Medium body, pretty smooth. Firm carbonation. Slightly oaky astringency. 

Drinkability - Really good, lots of malt/barrel/Brett character all working together without excessive acidity. One of my favorite sours we’ve done, right up there with Growth Rings. I’d like to blend something similar again in a few years. 

Changes for Next Time - A few people suggested more acidity, but I like it as is. It’s considerably more acidic than my recollection of Flemish Kiss from Commons. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how this one ages.


Effort: Gindicators 2024

Local in-season fruit is less expensive than buying IQF or Puree. What you are paying for with those is convenience and consistency. Buying locally requires figuring out who grows good produce, building relationships, and being on top of communication. For Gindicators, we sourced peaches, nectarines, and apricots as the summer progressed. I picked through them each day, processing and freezing the fruit that was ripe. Waiting on the rest. It's worth it for me to go that extra length to create the best stone fruit aroma possible! 

We paired that with a low-acidity (higher hoping rate) pale base aged in gin barrels. Stone fruit in general and apricots in particular bring a lot of their own acidity. After refermentation we blended in a 30 gallon "double gin-barrel-finished" higher-acid beer to add more gin character.



Gindicators 2024 Tasting Notes

Smell - Funky nose, damp hay Brett. As a result, it reads more saison-ish than our sours usually do. Melds in a fun way with citrus and rosemary notes from the barrels. Plenty of stone fruit, yellow peach especially, but leaves room for the other aromatics. Pez candy. Overall vibrant and varied. 

Appearance - Mild haze, bright yellow body. Sticky white head, good density. End of the bottle pour has some small yeast floaties. Seems like more yeast adhered in the bottle than usual too. Maybe the 58W3 from refermentaiton? 

Taste - Snappy acidity (malic?), glad we selected lower acid barrels for this one! Tastes more acidic than the >3.5 pH suggests. Lots of fresh apricot and nectarine on the palate. Minimal sweetness.  Juniper comes through in the finish, piney, Sprite-like. Faint bitterness from the higher IBU component in the blend. 

Mouthfeel - Firm carbonation. Light body, but not tannic or harsh despite the extended aging. 

Drinkability - The acid level is just about right for my tastes, lingers for a second, but then goes. 

Changes for Next Time - Not much to change on this one. I could be tempted to go up 25% on the fruit, it had a little more punch before we blended in the last 30 gallon gin barrel. Likely wasn’t necessary to repitch yeast so soon after refermentation on the fruit?


Process: Neologism 2024

We treat our sour beers with the same care and attention to sanitation and oxygen ingress as we do our Hazy IPAs. We purge the barrels and bottles with CO2, we fill the blending tank with water and push it out to remove all of the oxygen before transers. I think it really shows with the "vibrancy" of the aromatics we are able to achieve, especially in a dry hopped sour like Neologism. It goes into the blending tank on hops, and infuses cold for 48 hours before bottling. Since we can't do a water push out with the hops in there, we do the push out, then add the hops while purging with CO2. 

The only previous batch of Neologism was named to Craft Beer & Brewing's Top 20 of 2022... that was the only beer we ever entered into a contest of any type!


Neologism 2024 Tasting Notes

Smell - Expressive in the nose with the gin shining. Spruce tips. Barnyard. Hops aren't as "raw" as an IPA, but it is still fresh smelling. 

Appearance - Head is great (dense, long lasting). Slightly hazy golden. 

Taste - A little of that guava thing from the first batch is starting to come through, awesome. Pleasant acidity, tart, but not harsh. Gin is a little more savory-herbal than previous gin beers: rosemary, spruce, bruised basil. A touch of oaky-vanillin as it warms. 

Mouthfeel - Light astringency, firm carbonation. Light body. 

Drinkability - I think this one will continue to improve as the edges soften and the hops integrate more. Still wish we could get more of those McClintock Reserva barrels, but even the second use one really helped this one! 

Changes for Next Time - On point! Not this beer… but would still love to do a Tangerine-Gin and/or a Guava Gin at some point.


Risk: Honeymoon SZN

We try a lot of different things that "sound like a good idea." It would certainly be easier and more reliable to pick a slate of brands to make every year. We do rebrew/blend the same beers occasionally, but we don't have a firm schedule and we always try to leave room for inspiration based on what barrels, ingredients, and flavors we have available. 

For Honeymoon SZN we started with a collab we brewed at Olde Mother Brewing (Frederick). Wedding SZN was a rice ale with Nelson Sauvin, elderflowers, and Phantasm (along with a natural thiol-releasing yeast strain). We racked it to white wine barrels and let the resident culture work. I sourced muscadine/scuppernong grapes (indigenous) through a local farmstand that has a relationship with a grower in South Carolina. I knew it was a good idea from the aroma of my car on the way back - halfway between Nelson Sauvin and Strawberry candy!


Honeymoon SZN Tasting Notes

Smell - Muscadine really comes through. Lots of white grape juice. Some toasty-funk, but not a primary aroma when cold. Bridges the gap between the Nelson and Brett. 

Appearance - Clear. Very pale yellow. Good thick white head that doesn’t last long. 

Taste - Light acidity, even less than Life is Ridiculous. Good fruit character, unique, fresh. A touch of funky smoke in the finish I haven’t noticed before. No elderflower. 

Mouthfeel - Bright, light, spritzy. 

Drinkability - Good, could use a touch more acid, but it is very drinkable as is.

Changes for Next Time - Not sure muscadine is a star… would be fun with a light dry hop. Maybe with another fruit, stone fruit?


Time: Opulence 2024

We age our beers for a long time. Years ago I visited an established brewery that had just added a large barrel facility for sour beers. The brewer running it mentioned he had to meet a monthly production quota for packaged product. Just seems impossible for that to produce fantastic beer. Sometimes we go a month without bottling anything because the beer isn't ready yet... sometimes we are doing back-to-back runs because we don't want something to sit any longer! Opulence 2024 was supposed to be Opulence 2023, but the beer just wasn't ready for the cherries after 8 months in the barrel... but it was at 20 months! We had some leftover high-acidity beer from the previous batch of Opulence kegged off that we blended in with the "fresher" beer that was aged in second-use Cherry Brandy barrels. 


Opulence 2024 Tasting Notes

Smell - Reminds me of my homebrews (in a good way). Funk (leathery) really comes through along with cherry and almond. Cherry is really fun, lots of cherry pie, vanilla, and depth. Nothing weird from the cherry brandy barrels considering the previous use was Imperial Stout. 

Appearance - I wish the clarity was a little better, but the color is a pleasant amber-orange. Great off-white head. 

Taste - Mild acidity, could be a little higher. Detectable bitterness (maybe a hair high). Good cherry flavor, sour cherry pie, vibrant. 

Mouthfeel - Light astringency, which is disruptive to the smoothness. Firm carbonation, medium-thin body. 

Drinkability - It’s solid. I like the lower acidity compared to past batches, but the bitterness gets in the way. 

Changes for Next Time - I wonder if aged hops rather than fresh in the whirlpool would work without providing any weird aromatics? I really like what the Saaz in the whirlpool did for the aroma and balance (lower acidity), but the bitterness clashes with the acidity in flavor… despite being “only” 19 IBUs. Maybe better to go with some alpha acid extract in the tank?


Equipment: Stained 2024

One thing that has worked out well for us is having smaller equipment. Rather than be forced to do big blends, we have equipment that is sized for flexibility. For example, with Stained we age it on wine grapes and raspberries separately. I'm sensitive to the "seedy" flavor that comes from long contact time with raspberries... but I also enjoy the deeper flavors of extended skin contact on grapes. So for this batch we kegged off the raspberry half after two weeks, while the Merlot grapes continued aging for another month until we liked the flavor. This plays into having the time to taste and adjust the production schedule. 


Stained 2024 Tasting Notes

Smell - Berries, especially raspberries… go figure. Certainly reads Flemish Red, Rodenbach etc. rather than Lambic thanks to no big funk/rubber. 

Appearance - Bright red, thin off-white head drops quickly. Good clarity, but not brilliant. Very attractive. 

Taste - Raspberry popsicle, very bright. Suggestion of sweetness from the fruit and malt. THP has cleaned up. Jammy, not overtly malty, but it fills in the fruit. Firm acidity, no harshness. Wine is subdued, but layers complexity and roundness compared to straight raspberries. Clean, not much funk although there is some earthiness. Oak is subdued thanks to third-use barrels. 

Mouthfeel - Medium-light, firm carbonation. Not thin or watery, helps support the fruit. 

Drinkability - Good, plenty of acid for my tastes, delicious fruit. Could be a little more interesting microbially, but it works in the Flemish tradition. 

Changes for Next Time - Could shift more towards the Merlot? Surprised how much acidity it picked up despite the alpha acid extract in the tote.


Out of State Shipping Club

If you are interested in tasting these beers, please sign-up by 10/28! You'll be charged $146 to your card on file and expect to receive your beer the first week of November! Available in: WA, CA, OR, NM, NV, CO, MN, NY, DC, CT, NE, MA, FL, PA, NH, NJ, ID, TX, KS, IN, WI, MO, IA, IL, MI, ND, VA, RI, NC, and SC.

Includes one 500 mL bottle each:

Gindicators 2024: Gin-barrel-aged pale sour with Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots

Flemish Gothic: 3-year Blend of Wine Barrel Aged Sour Reds

Opulence 2024: Sour Red with Fresh and Dried Sour Cherries aged in Cherry Brandy and Bourbon Barrels

Neologism 2024: Gin-barrel-aged and Mosaic Cryo Dry Hopped

Stained 2024: Wine-barrel-aged with Raspberries and Merlot Grapes

Honeymoon SZN: Wine-barrel-aged with Phantasm and Muscadine/Scuppernong Grapes


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Inventing Cocktails Inspired by Craft Beer

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As someone with a "beer-centric" palate, it is often difficult for me to find cocktails that I enjoy. When I go to a cocktail bar and order something that sounds interesting, the flavors are often overwhelmingly concentrated, and the balance tends to be either super-sweet or super-boozy. The 20-30+% ABV of most cocktails also makes them rough to drink at the same rate you would a beer...

So, I thought it would be interesting to invent a few cocktails inspired by the balance and flavors of some of my favorite beer styles. If you want to drink something that tastes exactly like a beer… drink a beer! These cocktails are “inspired” by the flavors in the style and the overall balance of the style in terms of alcohol-bitterness-sweetness, they aren’t meant to be “ringers” for drinking a given beer. I'm also trying to avoid "uncommon" ingredients... although some of these may take a little searching at a specialty grocery/liquor store or online.

I’m not an experienced bartender or mixologist, if you try one of these let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions!


Ramos Gin Fizz... Hazy IPA

Gin and Tonic is my standard cocktail order because it isn't too strong or too sweet, and the bitter/herbal notes are something I appreciate. I also find Ramos GIn Fizz to be a fun one, with the added body of an egg white and cream, and more citrus from lemon juice and orange blossom water. In this "Hazy IPA" inspired riff, I swapped out the tonic for aromatic hop water. To replace the malt sweetness and enhance the juicy flavors from the hops I added orange juice. To keep it from being too one-note orange, I added New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which contains high concentrations of many of the aromatics produced by Thiolized yeast and found in New Zealand hops. An egg white helps to add haze, foam, and body.

Recipe

In a shaker, combine:

1.5 oz Bombay Dry Gin

1.25 oz Orange Juice

1.25 oz Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc

1 Egg White

Dry shake 10 seconds

Pour into a glass, then top-up with:

6 oz Hop Water

6.7 % ABV

Ingredient Notes: The Hop Water you choose is up to you. I've enjoyed the ones from breweries as well as places like Hoplark. You can also make your own with carbonated water and some hop terpenes (I like the ones from Abstrax). Use pasteurized egg white if you are worried about the risk of salmonella. If you don't like orange, try mango or another juice that appeals to you. 

Tasting Notes

Smell - Winey tropical-citrus. Slight herbal from the hops and gin. Doesn't read obviously juniper.

Appearance - Very pale, very hazy. Great sticky head.

Taste - Pleasantly sweet. Good balance of the juice and wine, without either dominating. The gin provides some depth, but again not overtly gin-y. The hop water brings herbal complexity without dominating the other ingredients with "hops."

Mouthfeel - Medium-light body, light carbonation.

Drinkability - Light and bright, citrusy.

Changes for Next Time - Certainly could add a few drops of hop terpenes if you want to send it more hoppy. Some hopped bitters could be a nice addition if you like a little more bitterness.


The Charleston... Rye Barrel English Barleywine

Thanks to Audrey, I've really come to enjoy fortified wines like Port, Sherry, and especially Madeira. It's traditionally made by halting fermentation with an addition of brandy to preserve the sweetness of the wine, then aged at elevated temperatures. The result is a like a concentrated barrel-aged English barleywine, woody, with dried fruit, and pleasant oxidative notes. I added Rye Whiskey to elevate the vanilla notes. Malta is essentially unfermented wort, but tends to have big caramel and malt extract notes from pasteurization. It helps by lowering the alcohol without thinning the cocktail, adding a little carbonation. 

Recipe

Combine together:

.5 oz Bulleit Rye (95 Proof)

1 oz Broadbent 10 Year Verdelho Madeira

1 oz H&H 10 Year Sercial Madeira

Stir, then top with:

2 oz Malta India (or Malta Goya)

14.0% ABV

Ingredient Notes: Madeira comes in various sweetness levels, the really sweet ones are too sugary for my tastes in this. Sercial is the driest and Verdelho is off-dry, but find ones that work for your palate.

Tasting Notes

Smell - The vanilla/oak of the rye leads. Rich dried fruit behind it. There is some maltiness there, but definitely tastes like a really aged-out barleywine without any fresh graininess. Boozy, hotter than I'd expect from an English barleywine.

Appearance - Deep leathery brown. Good clarity. No head.

Taste - The Maderia really gives it an "aged" character, lots of raisin and date. The Sercial especially gives it a fun oxidative weirdness, and a faint acidity. There is a "sugary" sweetness, along with some alcohol warmth. Subtle bitterness.

Mouthfeel - Almost flat, "barrel sample" generously. Not quite as full as a real barleywine, but not watery or thin by any means.

Drinkability - This is one of the more evocative ones, really has a lot of the flavors you'd expect from a barrel-aged barleywine. It's a little sweet for me, but so are a lot of barleywines.

Changes for Next Time - Wish it had a little more carbonation. Otherwise it really satisfies that English Barleywine itch.


Sherry Shrub...  Flemish Sour Red/Oud Bruin

One of the classic inclusions in the microbe blend for Flemish Red/Browns (e.g., Wyeast Roeselare) is Sherry Flor. This oxidative yeast forms the pellicle on sherry and produces the characteristics aldehydes that give sherry a nutty/fruity aroma. Oloroso is more "microbe" forward, funkier, while PX is more sweet and dried fruit (especially raisin). The acidity of the grapes needs a little help to mimic the classic examples of the style, so inspired by shrubs I added both vinegar and kombucha. The blend of sherries, sweetness of the kombucha, and amount of vinegar are all variables you can adjust. 

Recipe

Combine together: 

.5 oz Lustau Oloroso Sherry

.5 oz Lustau PX Sherry

.25 tsp Balsamic Vinegar

Stir, then top with:

3 oz Wild Bay Elderberry Kombucha

4.6% ABV

Ingredient Notes: The kombucha choice is tricky, a cherry kombucha is a nice choice if you are looking to replicate a fruited version of the style. For my palate I'd avoid those kombucha with stevia or other non-sugar sweeteners. Cream Sherry is a blend of Oloroso and PX and could be a stand-alone replacement (although you the flexibility or tweaking your blend). 

Tasting Notes

Smell - Fun mix of red fruit and raisins. A little oak/almond. The elderberry works well compared to some other kombuchas since it isn't as distinct as cherry, strawberry et al. I like the Wild Bay since it doesn't have stevia or other non-sugar sweeteners.

Appearance - Clear, more amber than red. Color is about right. Not much foam.

Taste - Pleasantly sweet. Tart, with just a touch of vinegar. It has a good blend of fresh and dried fruit flavors, plum, fig, raisin etc. A little oaky. Has that classic Belgian Red balance with sugar balancing the acid.

Mouthfeel - Medium body, pleasant low carbonation.

Drinkability - This is a super interesting result for low ABV.

Changes for Next Time - Misses the maltiness of the real version, but it has the fruitiness, acid, oak, age. For a low ABV cocktail it really delivers, with the fermentation of the kombucha helping stretch the Sherry.

Espresso Martini... Coffee Stout

Flavored beers are one of the "easiest" points of entry since they already have big flavors that aren't from malt, hops, or yeast. That said, it seemed like a waste of time to make a smoothie sour cocktail. Coffee stout is still a stout, and seemed like a nice place to work in bourbon since it usually includes some barley and brings big oak aromatics that work well in stouts. A little Malta again provides body, sweetness, and a touch of carbonation. 

Recipe

Combine together:

4 oz Cold Brew Coffee

1 oz Kahlua

1 oz Bourbon

Stir, then top with:

2 oz Malta India

7.5% ABV

Ingredient Notes: I should probably have sourced a "better" coffee liquor, but Kahlua is what we had on hand. Homemade cold brew would work just as well, if not better. 

Tasting Notes

Smell - Big coffee nose, with some vanilla. It reads caramel malty, but not roasty.

Appearance - Deep brown, with red at the edges when held to the light.

Taste - Has a pleasant sweetness, certainly sweeter than a typical coffee stout thanks to the simple sugars. Nice note of bourbon woody/vanilla in the finish

Mouthfeel - Medium body, light carbonation.

Drinkability - I really like this one, more coffee-focused than a stout usually is, but the other notes round it out.

Changes for Next Time - I think this one straddles the line between traditional coffee stout and pastry stout. A little sugary compared to a classic stout.

Conclusion

This has been fun for me to work on the last couple months. I'll probably make a Part #2 if there is interest... already playing around with a West Coast Grapefruit IPA, Pastry Stout plus plans for Wit, Rauchbier, and Saison! 

Shoot me a line if you try any of these out, or if you have suggestions or other ideas!

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