GHOST

Over the years, Andrew and I have both grown more and more fond of complex sour ales like Belgian Lambics, Flemish reds & browns as well as many of the American Wild Ales. While these beers can be immensely satisfying, they often take years to reach their full potential. Although we've brewed several examples of these styles, we often find ourselves longing for a quick way to produce complex sour beers.

We've brewed several beers that rely on a quick souring with Lactobacillus, followed by fermentation with Saccharomyces or Brettanomyces to good effect (Berliner Weiss/Roggen, Gose, Farmhouse series), but they still lack some of the complexity and true sourness that our long-fermented Belgian style ales have.

Rewind to the Low Dive years and our first Saison; my original idea was to brew a Saison fermented with a commercial Saison strain augmented by the addition of dregs from the funky Saison master Dany Prignon at Fantôme. This first attempt was satisfying, but the contribution from the dregs was negligible. For our second attempt we made a yeast starter from the dregs of Fantôme bottles and used this slurry as our yeast. This version exhibited a complex sour ale within just a few months and proved to be a great compromise between the quickness of something like a Berliner and the years-long process involved in something like a Lambic. We have used this same method several times now to produce some really fun beers, including a blueberry infused version (Elila), a wet-hopped harvest version (Harvester of Sour) and a pumpkin & spelted version (Ghost). For our last couple batches we changed our method by harvesting yeast from our own beers instead of relying on bottles of Fantôme to get things moving. All of this experimenting over the last 4-5 years with this method gave us the idea to figure out a way to perpetually produce this base beer while building our own 'house' character into process.

The answer Drew and I came up with was to re-pitch the slurry from our previous batch (Ghost) into barrels and ferment entirely in the barrel. By way of Spiteful, we procured two FEW bourbon barrels and proceeded with our plan. After just two weeks of fermentation, we were almost amazed to find that this fourth or so generation of mixed culture produced what previous batches took two months to accomplish. At this point, there is a very pleasing sourness, complimented by an earthy funk & spicy complexity.

We expect to package this beer soon and plan to keep our yeast housed in these barrels with the plan to perpetually barrel-ferment our quick, complex sour ale.

—Written by Matt Kanable

RELISH — Graze Magazine Release Party

Graze is a literary magazine (founded in 2011) that focuses on many aspects revolving around food. It's released only twice a year, accompanied by a party filled with food, drinks and bands. This Saturday, May 3, marks the release of their fifth issue. For $10, the party will offer you food from Paper Moon Pastry and FIG Catering, drinks made by Chad Hauge from Longman & Eagle, performances by KSRA and Quarter Mile Thunder, AND you get to leave with your own copy of the new Graze. Lastly, we'll be there too, and this would be a great opportunity to sample our beer. On this evening, we'll be sampling:

Inbred Brown
A Kentucky Common Ale fermented in oak casks with Lactobacillus

Maibock
Spring Helles Bock

Farmhouse 005
Wheat ale fermented with Brettanomyces, briefly matured in oak casks and blended with Kombucha tea

>>> FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE <<<

Inbred Brown: Kentucky Common

Kentucky Common is a style that was hugely popular in and around Louisville, Kentucky at the beginning of the 1900's.  It is estimated that in 1913 almost 80% of the beer consumed in the region was of this style.  Many local breweries in the area made their own version of this style, so it is not unreasonable to expect that there would have been some variation from brewery to brewery.  Although Kentucky Common was at one point very popular, like many beers brewed before prohibition, the style was mostly lost as the popularity of commercialized light lager grew.  Since this Kentucky Ale has not been continually brewed since its heyday, it is difficult to really know what this beverage tasted like.  What we do know from a few historical texts is that this was a dark beer, brewed with a large portion of corn, rounded out with other distiller's grains such as Malted Barley, Rye and or Wheat and fermented by way of Sour Mash.  It is believed that the Kentucky Common borrowed heavily from its distilled cousin, Bourbon.  As mentioned previously, the grists were similar, including Corn, Barley and to a lesser degree Rye and Wheat.  Like Bourbon, the fermentation took place via sour mash & it is very possible that used Oak Bourbon casks would have been used as a fermenter as well as a vessel for transportation & serving.

For our first attempt brewing this style, we utilized a sour mash in conjunction with a lightly hopped grist made up of Malted Barley, Flaked Corn, Rye Malt & Roasted Barley.  After cooling, the wort was fermented with a Brewer's Yeast native to the US.

For our most recent attempt, we decided to conduct our sour ferment initially with a pure Lactobacillius strain.  After the beer is soured to our liking, we will pitch a 'clean' ale strain to work on the rest of the sugars.  One other major difference for this batch is the choice of fermenting vessel;  while our initial batch was fermented in a normal fermenter, this batch will spend its entire pre-packaged life fermenting in a used Whiskey cask. We are extremely excited to see how this 100% barrel fermentation will affect the final product. We are also pretty pleased to have these barrels in our collection; thanks to Few Spirits & Spiteful Brewing.