Whoa!  Two years is a long time to recap the sour beer history at the Wonderland Brewing Company. What a time of growth and change in the industry, and how the sour beer train carries along slowly developing around us.  Hazy IPA’s are the fashion, Seltzer is the fashion, and yet sour beer still holds a special place on our plate and with our friends and family.  We have come a long way in our sour beer program and have just released our third American sour ale, Raspberry Velvet Settee, a wonderful tribute to juicy red fruit, damp earth and the coming of spring.  Hopefully the first in a successful line up of sour beers we are so excited to have this on tap.  We made it the slow hard way, a few casks at a time, and given a lot of time at that.  This beer really set the standard for our sour beer production and helped us realize that 18 months of aging were required to develop the flavor and intangible qualities that make this release so drinkable and nuanced.  We had a great time as we moved this barrel into serving tanks and we were excited to discover those barrels will now be filled for their fifth time.  We can only wait for what is to come.

It is exciting to develop some confidence in producing these beers. We feel like we are getting better every batch and we are always excited to experiment and try new things.  One of the things we have been doing is using barrel cards to identify each and every barrel.  I have to absolutely shout out to Jessup Farm Barrel House from whom I so graciously borrowed this idea.  I still today feel like it has such presence and it creates a wonderful atmosphere when we are working in the brewery.  One of the best parts of making each card is the quote section which we all work to develop.  I’ll make sure to post a few of my favorites this week.

As we look to the future, we are excited to at least preview our next few sour beers.  We have created a pale wort sour with tangerines, our amber wort with sour pie cherries, and a guava experimentation we are looking forward to as well.  Hopefully the expansion of this program will lead to some blending and some bottle conditioning, which in my mind would make it seem like we have “arrived”.  Always so many challenges in sour beer and always so exciting to be a part of.  I hope you can make it in and experiences our most recent release and we look forward to hosting you.

~J~

“Kiss My Ass I Bought a Boat”

Tasting Notes:  Raspberry

Visual : Delicate and Clear, Ruby with vinous tints. Soft fading white head, Hints of red fruit

Aroma : Funk, Acid, Bright Berry, red cherry, raspberry, earth

Taste :  Red Fruit, Earth, Berries, Bright, Tart, Dry.

ABV 5.1%

IBU : None