2021 Coolship

2021 Coolship - 4.5% We excited to release our second vintage of our coolship collaboration with @DeerCreekMalt. 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. In the winter of 2021 we brewed a beer with Deer Creek pilsner malt, and malted and unmalted spelt. We performed a traditional turbid style mash and hopped it with lots of our attic aged hops. Mark from Deer Creek skillfully backed his mobile coolship into our narrow driveway, where we allowed the night air to cool and innoculate the wort. The next day we transferred the beer into wine barrels and let it ferment for about 1 year. In April 2022 we bottled the blended barrels and conditioned it till the present. More than any beer we’ve made so far, we feel this beer showcases the character of our SEPA region in general, and our humble little brewery in particular.

We’re presently tasting notes of classic Belgian mixed culture fermentations, dried grapefruit circles, aged hop loveliness, mixed citrus marmalade, oaken ghosts, some tropical trail mix, and the past/present/future.