Denver, CO — Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales is releasing PEACEMAKER, a new spontaneous solera blend on Saturday, May 27, 2016 at 12:00pm.
PEACEMAKER is part of the brewery’s experimental series, which uses a blend of two spontaneous solera fermented beers. The blend is a combination of two base beers, one 100% wheat and the other, a golden ale, made with pilsner malt. Both beers were brewed on Black Project’s 4 BBL system and then cooled in the brewery’s coolship, a custom-built copper 12 BBL vessel designed to cool wort overnight while inoculating with wild yeast and other microbes from the air. In November, the brewery expanded into the space next door to add 100 oak barrels and a new coolship, which sits under an open window with fans overhead to circulate the air. This allows the boiling wort to cool for 12 hours, which inoculates the wort with airborne microbes, including brettanomyces, lactobacillus, pediococcus, and saccharomyces. Once it is cooled, the wort is transferred to stainless-steel totes where it aged and fermented for 8-12 months.
This beer was created using a solera method, a process where unfermented wort is added to finished beer, which causes the active microbes in the beer to referment the new wort, creating an almost identical copy of the original spontaneously fermented beer. When the total volume has finished fermentation, a portion of the beer is then transferred to another container and the new, unfermented wort, is topped off to replace and referment on the existing beer. This is a continuous process that the brewery has used for over three years to create one of a kind beers, as each beer changing slightly from the previous batch.
After the new wort refermented for six more months, on top of the original spontaneous beer, a portion of the finished solera was transferred to Bourbon barrels that Red Fox Cellars, a Palisade, CO winery, used to age cherry wine. The beer aged in the barrel for a month to soak up all the beautiful cherry wine, rich oak character from the wood, and some of the original bourbon notes.
The base beer is funky and tart and pairs perfectly with the sharp flavors of the barrel, while still peeking through with a complex and unique character. This beer is the culmination of years of spontaneous fermentation, barrel aging, and a unique partnership with Red Cox Cellars. Bottles are extremely limited and will be sold on a first come, first served basis. This beer will continue and develop with age so drink fresh or save for later.
PEACEMAKER was named after the production of the Convair B-36 “Peacemaker”, originally created for the United States Air Force by Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation in 1946 as a piston-engine bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons intercontinentally without refueling, with a range of 10,000 miles and a maximum payload of 87,200 lbs.
The B-36 set the standard for range and payload for subsequent U.S. intercontinental bombers.
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About Black Project Spontaneous and Wild Ales
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales is the passion project of James Howat, owner, brewer, and blender; and Sarah Howat, owner and operation manager; of what was formerly Former Future Brewing Company. The brewery began production in January 2014 and won two bronze medals for their coolship ales (Category: Experimental, Subcategory: Wild Ales) at The Great American Beer Festival in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, Black Project expanded production with a small addition to the property which allowed for the expansion of their barrel program. This allowed the brewery to evolve from Former Future Brewing Company to only serving Black Project beers. In 2017, Black Project hopes to produce 250 BBL of beer and increase distribution.
Every Black Project beer is fermented with microbes captured from the local environment via a coolship or foraged from nature. We believe this creates a beer that is unrivaled in complexity. Our beers are intended to have a sense of place, or terroir. No matter how hard one tried to, our beer cannot be replicated outside of our brewery. In fact, our microbe cultures are purposefully allowed to evolve from batch to batch, creating variations and interesting twists from different releases of the same beer.
We are meticulous about designing recipes and processes that will allow nature to take over and create beers unrivaled in their beauty and complexity. Through experimentation and research, we are continuously developing new and different techniques for use with wild and spontaneous fermentation.
We are not and do not have any intention of being a Lambic brewery. We use science and experimentation to find which processes and ingredients we want and often use that in parallel to traditional Lambic producers, however, other than the use of a coolship, we maintain no strict adherence to tradition for tradition’s sake. Spontaneous fermentation is merely a starting point and core of our process, from there our research and development extends much beyond the scope of the great Belgian brewers and blenders.
Event Links:
www.blackprojectbeer.com/affairs/peacemaker-bottle-release
www.facbook.com/events/1887656784843243
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales Links:
www.blackprojectbeer.com
www.facebook.com/blackprojectbeer
www.instagram.com/blackprojectbeer
www.twitter.com/blackprojectale