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Blackberry & Blueberry | 2021 Harvest
Spontaneous
Blackberry & Blueberry | 2021 Harvest is a blend of traditionally brewed spontaneously fermented beers from a single brewing season: one batch containing New Jersey blueberry blossom honey, and another aged in a chestnut puncheon. In August of 2021, we picked up our harvest of New Jersey grown blackberries and added them directly to oak with the blend for refermentation. At the end of summer, we received that year's New Jersey blueberry harvest and added these directly to stainless. We racked the blackberry spontaneously fermented beer to cold soak on the skins and juices of the blueberries for a short period of time before racking back to oak for refermentation and conditioning. At bottling, this blend had an average age of 27 months and has been conditioning since its bottling in early 2022. Blackberry & Blueberry | 2021 Harvest pours a deep purple color with ruby highlights and a rocky pink foam. This beer pushes aromatics of jammy blueberries and overripe blackberries supported by a malolactic creaminess, making this reminiscent of a full-bodied California Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Bière de Noël | Winter 2024
Spontaneous
Bière de Nöel | Winter 2024, a Two-Year Spontaneous Blend, is available in 500mL bottles starting tomorrow. This festive beer began in 2020 as a single batch of traditional spontaneously fermented beer containing New Jersey blueberry blossom honey. A majority of this beer was racked to one of our Sangiovese wine foudres for 27 months, selected for its well-rounded and refreshing profile. Prior to bottling in March 2022, we selected a young spontaneously fermented beer that still contained a portion of fermentable sugar and blended it with the two-year-old spontaneous beer. The carbonation for this beer is entirely derived from the sugars present in the young beer. Bière de Nöel | Winter 2024 pours gold with aromatics of ripe peaches, fruit cups and a touch of honey supported by a bright but balanced acidity and a high minerality.
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Bière de Noël | Winter 2021
Flemish-Style Red
Bière de Noël | Winter 2021 was brewed over two batches in the 18|19 season as an homage to some of our favorite specialty winter beers from the West Flanders region of Belgium. The beer was brewed using a turbid mash with a grist including some darker specialty grains and a long 9-hour boil to promote deep flavor development of plum and figs. Aged hops were used which brings a pleasant orange-citrus note. It was open fermented in our coolship before maturing in oak for 27 months. With an additional 10 months of bottling conditioning time, our first Bière de Noël has an age of 37 months upon release. Bière de Noël | Winter 2021 pours a mahogany color with highlights of burnt orange and a creamy brown head. It pushes bright aromatics of strawberry, raspberry and blackberry bramble along with supporting notes of vanilla, figs, dates and orange rind coupled with a hint of roasty chocolate and coffee complexity.
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Bière de Noël | Winter 2022
Spontaneous
Bière de Nöel | 2022 is brewed with barley grist—60% of which is malted to a low specification, while the rest is left unmalted. This beer undergoes a traditional turbid mash and a six-hour boil to enhance wort caramelization and mouthfeel. It uses aged hops at the start of the boil but receives a heavy dose of fresh whole leaf Czech Saaz hops as it enters the coolship for spontaneous inoculation. For Bière de Nöel | 2022, a blend was made pulling from primarily three-year and two-year components with an average age of 24 months, then dry hopped with fresh 2021 harvest Hallertau Mittelfruh hops from our Florian Seitz at Seitz Farms in Bavaria. Prior to bottling, we blended in young one-year beer from the same recipe to provide the entirety of the fermentable sugars. It pours a golden straw with a lasting white foam. Strong hop aromatics of pear, fig and apricot are accompanied by flavors of French cider, Alsatian wine a strong minerality and a complex acid profile.
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Bière de Noël | Winter 2023
Spontaneous
Bière de Nöel | Winter 2023 is a special three-year Congac-aged Spontaneous Blend. The oldest component of this special blend was from a wheat-heavy batch brewed during our Spring 2018 season that was fermented in a 600L Pineau des Charentes cask. The two-year component was from a traditional mash brew during the Spring of 2020 that was fermented in a 600L Cognac cask, while the youngest of the three was brewed with New Jersey Blueberry Blossom Honey during our Fall of 2020 brew season and fermented in a 450L Pineau des Charentes cask. The blend of these three spontaneous beers, using all New Jersey grown malts and some honey, was laid to rest in a Cognac cask for seven months prior to bottling. In March 2022, we blended back a small portion of young spontaneous beer and bottled. Bière de Nöel had an average age of 23 months at bottling. This blend pours with a highly carbonated mousse-like foam head with a burnt golden orange color. It features a balanced and soft profile combining notes of orange citrus, candied fruit, apricot, and light cherry/almond rounded out by subtle Cognac barrel caramelized fruitiness and soft acidity. Bière de Nöel | Winter 2023 a perfect and bright pairing for a winter holiday enjoyment.
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Chambourcin | 2020 Harvest
Spontaneous
In October 2020, our team visited Bellview Winery to pick up a half a ton of New Jersey grown Chambourcin as they were coming off the crusher destemmer. We immediately transferred a single chestnut puncheon of young 8-month-old traditional spontaneous beer onto the crushed grapes for refermentation on the skins at a 49% fruiting rate. We allowed the beer extended contact with the grape skins before racking it back to oak to condition for an additional 10 months. Finally, we laid the beer down in bottles for an additional 5 months of conditioning. Upon release, Chambourcin will be 23 months old. Chambourcin pours a royal purple while overflowing with aromatics of strawberry, raspberry, wet stone and beautifully delicate funk. It drinks with a creamy mouthfeel with lightly balanced acidity and fruit, akin to a Beaujolais.
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Enchanted Grove
Spontaneous
Back in 2021 we got together with our friends from Primitive for a collaborative Spontaneous blend that would become Enchanted Grove. For this blend, we chose some mature spontaneously fermented beer across three brewing seasons, with the oldest component from the early spring of 2018. A portion of this blend was also aged in large cognac puncheons. After blending, we allowed this beer to continue to mellow for an additional two years. In the winter of 2023, we sourced New Jersey grown yuzu and sudachi citrus fruits which we zested and added directly to the blend before bottling. At the time of bottling, this blend had an average age of 58 months, making it our most mature spontaneously fermented blend to date. Enchanted Grove has been conditioning since its bottling in early 2024. Enchanted Grove pours a golden orange with aromatics of orange blossom and orange citrus with an underlying complexity of yeasty cellar funk. It offers flavors of lemon-lime soda, white wine raisins, lemon custard and apple blossoms with a well-integrated acid profile supported by high carbonation.