Pilot Batch: Farmhouse Ales

If you've ever shared a pint with me, you know that I thoroughly enjoy the flavors of a rustic farmhouse ale.  It's a preference that developed over years of exploring the vast universe of craft beers.  I think that the past will shape the future, and this historically significant style of beer will certainly have an influence on what we do at The Good Beer Company.  With that, I dedicate this blog post to all things farmhouse, from funky barnyard and dry hay to lemon rind and tropical fruit.

Blending geographies, we start our journey in Wallonia, a French-speaking portion of Belgium, where Saison (literally, "Season" in French) was historically brewed to quench the thirst of seasonal farm workers.  The classic representation of the style started brewing commercially around the mid-eighteenth century.  Today, the array of farmhouse flavors inspire American brewers - including myself.

Farmhouse Ale:  To me, the flavors contributed by a used wine barrel meld seamlessly with the flavors of a farmhouse ale.  Last summer, I brewed a simple saison recipe with my friends and fellow homebrewers David Larsen and Mike Roberts.  We brewed up one wine barrel worth and it has been aging in my garage since then.  In December, we brewed up 20 more gallons,  pulled out a couple kegs worth, and refilled the barrel - a process called solera.  We brewed this recipe again last weekend to continue the process.  It's beyond exciting to always have a fine wine barrel aged farmhouse ale available.  The beer features soft oak, red wine, and fruity aromas and flavors with a tartness on the palate and very dry finish.

Wild yeast meets the West Coast:  Last summer I started experimenting with different yeast strains not commonly used in American beer production - Brettanomyces vs Saccharomyces (the later is used in brewing and wine production across the world, the former is often considered a spoilage organism in breweries and wineries).  While Brettanomyces throws of some unsavory flavors when used in a mixed fermentation (it can destroy years of hard work by a winemaker), the flavors it produces in a pure culture fermentation are what interest me.  I'm having a ton of fun blending the flavors of this wild yeast with some flavors we're much more used to here on the West Coast - hops!  The citrus, lemon, mango, pineapple and explosive tropical fruit salad flavors contributed by wild yeast pair up nicely with flavorful American hops prevalent in West Coast India Pale Ales and Pale Ales. 

I blogged about these experiments last summer and I'm happy to report that, with nearly a year worth of refinement, we're heading in the right direction.