In Spontaneity

In Spontaneity

In Spontaneity
Spontaneous Sour Gold
5.5%ABV

Spontaneous sour beers have enthralled us for years. 
Sorry.
Lambic has enthralled me for years. The traditional sour beers made in the Senne Valley in Belgium. For my 24th birthday I was lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks going back and forth from brewery to bar and back again around Brussels, indulging in some of my favourites every step of the way. I'd never attempted a spontaneously fermented beer before I went over there, but looking at their brewhouses, reading about their processes, hearing stories inspired me to begin work immediately upon my return.

Trial 1 went so bad that I had to stop brewing for a while.

It took 4 batches on our pilot system over 2, 16 hour days to produce. Topping up an open top vessel we had with each part. On the second night, at about 11pm I drove it all down to the vineyard, parking it outside for whatever wild yeast and bacteria was in the air to inoculate and ferment what we had made. I got up early the next morning, checked the temperature, confirming that it had cooled down enough to pump into barrel and started driving it back up to the shed. I got halfway up the fairly short and shallow hill and the buggy stalled. The liquid sloshed, made a wave, went back, and.... tipped the whole container out the back, losing the entirety of it. Tired, worn out, shattered. I took a couple of months off brewing and came back and tried again. Parts of that first successful trial live on in Convoluted History. Anyway, back to this beer!

Following on from the above, we strapped down our open top fermenter in future runs, preventing any disasters. This beer is a blend of 50% Winter 2017 produced spontaneous gold and 50% Winter 2019 produced spontaneous gold. 

This probably should have been blended a touch younger than this, so the acid profile is a bit heavier hitting than we would normally target.

Pouring yellow with a dense head that quickly dissipates. It exhibits some light minerality with classic Belgian funk on the nose. Sharper acidity than many of our beers. Expect the texture and flavour of biting into a slightly under-ripe apricot.

Grain Bill: Barley, Raw Wheat
Hops: Cascade
Yeast: Spontaneous
Bacteria: Spontaneous
Barrel: American Oak Hogshead