Lots has been happening since we last wrote. We had three bottle releases for our new series of beers – Blended Wild and Sour French Oak Wine Barrel Aged Ales in the tradition of the Belgians. We blend at least three different types of beer of different ages and different types of wine barrels and voila! Delicious, well-balanced Wild and Sour Ale. We also aged a Saison that used Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand in a Chardonnay barrel with White Concord Grapes from a neighbor’s yard for one year and created our first true beer-wine hybrid. More of that to come this fall when the new wine grape harvest is available. We are also contemplating a cool ship – very exciting!
We have sold our beer into 12 bottle shops all around Puget Sound. They are Saison on Grapes, Melange Une, Melange Deux and Mandala. We are now approaching fine dining restaurants with celebrity chefs and have several appointments with these in the next weeks. Our beer is a perfect fit for this, and pairs very well with food. Also some local grocery stores.
I’m catching up on our PicoBrew sessions with customers that signed up to brew with us. It is fun working with people and their recipes. I had a challenge converting a recipe that was part extract and part grain last week.
At the end of the month we are attending the Farmhouse and Wild Beer Festival in Portland, which we have gone to for the past three years. It’s an excellent forum to get creative new ideas for our Wild, Sour and Saison beers.
Coming soon – our oh so popular Apricot Thai Basil and Black Tripel is in the fermentor again. That is all for now from Lisa.