Coolship 2022 -750ml. bottle

Coolship 2022 - 4.5% We’re super psyched to release our 2022 batch of Coolship! This will be the 3rd vintage we’ve released so far. This one is tasting fabulous right now, with notes of funky nectarine, crystalized grapefruit, golden kiwis, barnyard lemonade, classic Brussels’ Brettanomyces, herbal aged hops, layers of funky depth, a pleasant acidity, and an ethereal yet lingering finish asking for another quick gulp.

We brewed this batch in late winter of 2022 with barley and spelt from @DeerCreekMalt; and lots of aged hops; and let it rest in the coolship overnight to allow a natural inoculation of wild microbes to carry out the fermentation in used oak wine barrels over the next year. In March of 2023 we selected a blend of the most special barrels, and bottled it up. We let these bottles rest and the beer continue to ferment and condition for 18 months. It’s wild to think we brewed this beer two and half years ago, and are just releasing it now. Such a fun journey for such a special beer.

Here’s a little more backstory on our Coolship process:

We’ve used all Deer Creek malt and grain in all our saisons for some time now, but a couple years ago Mark suggested we try brewing a batch to cool overnight in Deer Creek’s mobile coolship. Typically, the hot sugary wort from the brewing process is rapidly cooled and kept sanitary to be fermented in fairly controlled conditions with a single culture of yeast. Historically, and presently in traditional lambic breweries and other coolship enthusiasts, the hot wort would have been cooled overnight in the open  shallow vessel called the coolship. In most cases this will expose the liquid to the many organisms present in the night air, which may influence the fermentation of the beer, suffusing it with that microbial terroir  we love to talk about. This is anything but controlled or sanitary, but provides the conditions for some wonderful microbial magic to take place. Rather than a stainless steel fermenter, these beers are fermented in oak barrels, which provide another opportunity for a diverse set of microorganisms to influence the character of the beer over the year/years of fermentation. Each barrel has its own microclimate, and come packaging time, we select a range of barrels that have the traits we are looking for (acidity, fermentation character, fruitiness, depth, age, etc). The blend is packaged in bottles where a final round of fermentation occurs, developing the carbonation as well as a host of new flavors. As we continue with this process, we’re psyched to now have a range of beers of various ages from which to blend 🙂