Showing posts with label Crux Fermentation Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crux Fermentation Project. Show all posts

Monday, June 4, 2018

The 2018 SAVOR Collaboration Beer: Brett de Vinum

One of the highlights to the annual SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience is that every guest leaves with a parting gift — a collaboration beer brewed specifically for the event. The 2018 collaboration beer Brett de Vinum is a partnership between Virginia's Port City Brewing Company and Oregon's Crux Fermentation Project.  Port City's Founder Bill Butcher explained how two breweries from opposite ends of the country partnered in creating this Barrel Aged Imperial Wit (8.0% ABV).

The two breweries have admired each other's beers over the years and over multiple calls and meetings discussed recipes, styles, and each of their strengths. One of Port City's strengths is brewing with raw wheat (Optimal Wit) and one of Crux Fermentation's strengths is barrel aging and mixed fermentation. According to Bill, "They wanted to learn more about brewing with wheat, which is not such a common style in the Pacific Northwest, and we wanted to learn more about mixed fermentation and barrel aging. As discussions progressed, we settled on a Barrel Aged Imperial Sour Wit".

As they refined the recipe they thought it would be interesting to utilize wine grapes in order to boost the sugar content and achieve a stronger Imperial alcohol level.  Again from Bill, "The National Sales Manager for Crux is a colleague of mine from Robert Mondavi, so we thought it appropriate to use wine grapes. Viognier is a grape that grows well in Virginia and in Oregon, so it naturally made sense to use Viognier".  Since Pinot Noir is Oregon's signature grape "healthy" doses of that grape were also used.  And since production occurred at Crux's facility in Bend, they sourced Oregon grapes. After fermentation, the beer was “banished” into red wine barrels with Crux’s house strains of Brettanomyces.

The result is a delicious beer combining the freshness and citrus yeastiness of the Optimal Wit with an enhanced creamy texture with just hints of sourness. Fortunately, the breweries closed the bottles with a cork so that it can be enjoyed over multiple evenings. Cheers to collaborations and SAVOR.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

SAVORing Ten Years of Craft Beer

This year the Brewers Association celebrated ten years of presenting SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience. And has we all know the craft beer landscape has changed dramatically during those years. According to the Brewers Association at year end 2007 there were 1,449 operating breweries in the United States with 1,406 being craft breweries and accounting for $5.74 billion in sales. Ten years later at the end of 2016 the total number of breweries escalated to 5,301 in which 5,234 were craft and $23.5 billion in sales. And as we know, that number increased during 2017 with multiple craft breweries opening weekly. This growth was no doubted fueled by legislative changes at the national and state levels; using Virginia as an example, the number of craft breweries skyrocketed when the state finally allowed breweries to serve beer in pints without having to also serve food.

The 2017 event featured 172 craft beers from 86 craft breweries as opposed to the 2008 event which hosted 48 breweries pouring 96 craft beers.  The inaugural event was was most likely concentrated with Pale Ales, English Porters, and a few West Coast IPAs, but over the next ten years transitioned to heavier IPAs, barrel programs, and sours. Whereas the latest event was heavy on the IPAs and sours, session styles re-surged with low ABV Pilseners, Kölsch, and Gose. Now I will come off as a hypocrite because I spent half the night targeting the sours and barrel aged beers, with both Crux Fermentation Project (Sour Golden Ale & Better Off Red) and D9 Brewing Company (Defying Gravity Series, 1st Edition - Cape Canaveral & Wild Things Series, 1st Edition - Pearedox ) each proving my favorite beers of the evening.  And the Union Craft Brewing Older Pro with Blueberry (Fruited Wood-Aged Sour Beer) and the Schlafly Bottleworks Gooseberry Gose were excellent.


Yet I was excited that more breweries were pouring traditional ales and lagers that I feel as a beer culture we are losing focus. Seattle's Reuben's Brews poured a traditional Gose, no extra flavors, just lactobacillus, salt, and coriander. It was fantastic. Did you know that Stevens Point Brewery is the nation's 5th oldest brewery? They've been brewing continuously for 160 years, specifically their flagship Point Special Lager.  They also produce the Point S.P.A. (Session Pale Ale) which is my new bicycle beer if I can find it. Summit Brewing Company out of St. Paul, MN has been brewing since 1986 making them the 30th oldest brewery. They were pouring their flagship Summit Extra Pale Ale as well as the Summit Keller Pils. The later is nails the style, with North Dakota two-row Moravian 37 barley and Saaz hops from the Czech Republic. An awesome Bohemian Pilsener. Complementing that on the German Pilsener side was the Half Acre Beer Company Pony Pilsener

Sadly, during my four hours at the event, I seemed to only have tasted through one third of the beers as well as missed the entire upper level of oysters and cheese.  Yet, SAVOR was still a remarkable event I I look forward to popping open the collaboration beer: SAVOR X, a Baltic porter brewed with hops and cocoa husks, courtesy of Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and New Belgium Brewing Company. Cheers.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

#SAVOR2016's Top Fifteen Beers That Blew Me Away

I attended SAVOR 2016 on Friday June 3rd and this Brewers Association sponsored event was splendid.  76 breweries poured two beers each and represented a mix of styles from IPAs, Stouts, Porters, Saisons, and sours. Many sours in fact and that's how I started off the evening. Out of the two dozen or so, there were a few that clearly stood out above the noise. Same for the many excellent barrel aged stouts and porters.  And in both categories top honors goes to Crux Fermentation Project. One caveat, I didn't sample many IPAs - just ran out of time trying to sample 152 beers. Cheers.
  1. Crux Fermentation Project [Banished] Bretted Farmhouse 
  2. D9 Brewing Company Systema Naturae Sour Ale fermented with wild lactobacillus & yeast, naturally conditioned.
  3. Crux Fermentation Project [Banished] Tough Love Barrel Aged Imperial Stout banished to used bourbon barrels
  4. The Lost Abbey Track #8  Barrel Aged Quad Judgement Day aged 9 months in new bourbon barrels and spiked with cinnamon sticks and dried chili peppers
  5. Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout combines hefty amounts of various dark malts with 98 IBUs of hops
  6. Urban Chestnut Brewing Company Schnickelfritz Weissbier
  7. Center of the Universe Brewing Company IV Quadrupel aged in red wine barrels
  8. Southern Tier Brewing Company Salted Caramel Imperial Stout based on a milt stout with Himalayan sea salt and caramelized sugar
  9. Right Proper Brewing Company Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne Berliner Weisse brewed with Meyer lemon zest, elderberries, and dry hopped with Sauvin
  10. New Belgium Brewing Company Tart Lychee Sour Ale barrel aged with lychee puree and cinnamon sticks
  11. Perennial Artisanal Ales Savant Blanc Sour Ale Barrel Aged Belgium Blond Ale (aged in Chardonnay barrels) with Chardonnel wine grapes
  12. Deschutes Brewery The Abyss Rye Barrel Aged Imperial Stout brewed with black strap molasses, licorice, cherry bark, augmented with vanilla, then aged 12 months in rye whiskey barrels.
  13. Strange Craft Beer Company Cherry Kriek Lambic with loads of cherries
  14. Bell's Brewery Bourbon Barrel Aged Expedition Stout
  15. Lewis and Clark Brewing Company  Prickly Pear Pale Ale

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)