Trial & Ale Brewing Company | Sour and Wild Artisanal Ales

"Time. It's what is needed to produce a product that is truly unique and memorable. 100% of our artisanal ales are matured and undergo a secondary fermentation in oak barrels from some of the most exclusive wineries in California. Our fermentations vary from months to years on oak to produce a product that tells a story of its journey to your glass. Our blends represent a snapshot in time preserved for your enjoyment, that will continue to evolve and are designed to be cellared and enjoyed for decades to come. Of course, only if you are able to resist and master the inevitable passage of - you guessed it - time."

BLENDS

Our Blends

Winter 2021/2022 Vintage - 750ml

SEPARATED TO A DEGREE

Alberta Beverage Awards 2022 Winner

Judges' Selection: Sours

Alberta Beverage Awards 2021 Winner

Judges' Selection: Sours

Alberta Beverage Awards 2020 Winner

Best in Class: Sours & Farmhouse

American Sour & Wild Ale

7.0%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

Medium

Acidity

Separated To A Degree – Winter 2021/2022 is the fourth turn of our award winning mixed fermentation blend. We’ve blended this release with the same elaborate mixture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria with the goal of preserving the flavour profile above all else. Presented with light copper hues and a citrus nose, the first impression of upfront lactic sourness soon gives way to a retronasal grapefruit olfaction that delights. To offer a balance to the acidity, a distinctive, delicately layered Brettanomyces character provides a baseline funk and backbone to the blend, providing even more depth to explore. We wanted to showcase our blend to be the difference, not the similarity. While there are many qualities that make this beer a textbook American Sour & Wild Mixed Fermentation by style, there are yet more characteristics that separate it from the pack. We hope that this is the first of many of our blends you come to enjoy in the future.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST/BACTERIA: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

7.4%

ALC/ VOL

35

IBU

Med/High

Brett. Funk

Year-Round Release - 750ml

A SAISON APPARENT

Canada Beer Cup 2022 Winner

Gold: Wild & Mixed Fermentation - Sour/Wild Ales

Alberta Beverage Awards 2022 Winner

Judges' Selection: Gose, Farmhouse Ales & Saison

Alberta Beverage Awards 2021 Winner

Best in Class: Gose, Farmhouse Ales & Saison

Brett Saison

A Saison Apparent! This blend has received the thorough Brettanomyces treatment. The Saison style originated near the border of Southern Belgium and Northern France as a farmhouse style beer with a low ABV% to serve the workers in the fields. Today, Saisons have evolved to be quite versatile in style, and substantially less sessionable. With the signature fruit esters and dry, hyper-attenuated finishing gravity from the diastaticus variant of the primary yeasts, it pours a rich copper to orange. The pairing of Saison with Brett is a hand-in-glove mating of dry, complex fruit with the earthy funk and deep flavours only a matured wild beer can achieve. Despite a tendency of wild yeasts to completely consume the resultant flavour profile of the primary yeast strains, we feel this blend achieves the balance of wild while preserving the traditional Saison character. We focused on an explicit lack of subtlety with this beer. Brettanomyces is undoubtedly the star of the show with esters playing the supporting role to round it out. As is our broader intention with all of our blends, we strive to showcase the fermentation characteristics above all else.

HOPS: German Hallertau, Saaz

MALTS: Pilsner, Rye, Wheat, Munich, Oats

YEAST: Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. diastaticus, Select Brettanomyces Strains, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

6.7%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

MEDIUM

Acidity

Year-Round Release - 750ml

AN EQUATORIAL DETOUR

Canadian Brewing Awards 2021 Winner

Gold: American Style Sour Ale

Fruited American Sour & Wild Ale

An Equatorial Detour was blended with the express intent of raising the humidity in any room. A mixed fermentation blend showcasing a playful series of handoffs between the tart, medium acidity our blends are known for, a firm funk background, and the expressive nature of fruit only the tropics can produce. Our house blend of microbes help create the crisp layers underpinning the bold, vibrant nose, and characteristic mixed fermentation dryness, presenting contrary to what our minds expect when we think of fruit. One noticeable trait for this blend is the very obvious lack of subtlety. Of all of our blends, we felt this blend was the most directional in our blending, with no pretense or concession. We bought the ticket, and we unapologetically took the ride. It’s easy to close your eyes and let the beer lead you on the travels we are all yearning for. There are many fruited beers on the market today, we consider this blend to be the Detour from conventional fruited ales. Drop us a postcard, and we hope to hear the stories of your experiences when you get back from your tropical voyage.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

Year-Round Release - 750ml

brunch.

7.1%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

MEDIUM

Acidity

Canadian Brewing Awards 2021 Winner

Silver: American Style Sour Ale

Alberta Beverage Awards 2021 Winner

Judges' Selection: Sours

Fruited American Sour & Wild Ale

brunch. – (you read that correctly, both lowercase and punctuated) is a Canadian take on a more traditional style: the framboise sour. Undeniably raspberry, but with a competing glow of Brettanomyces funk consistent with our blends. It is worth noting how the baseline acidity that is a product of microbial activity, conspires with the acids naturally present in the raspberries, to further increase the total acidity of the blend while maintaining a less aggressive and more balanced overall profile. In addition to the heavy raspberry charge, is a mostly silent, yet substantial fruit contribution of mango added not for its impact to the flavour profile, but for its contribution to the overall mouthfeel. At 7.1% ABV, this blend is a fermentation with no indication on the palate of the percentage contained within. Allow to warm slightly to enjoy all of the nuance and complexity.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

Summer 2021 - 750ml

DISSENT WITHIN THE CAUCUS

7.9%

ALC/ VOL

20

IBU

MEDIUM

Acidity

Alberta Beverage Awards 2021 Winner

Judges' Selection: Gose, Farmhouse Ales & Saison

Golden Long Aged Mixed Fermentation Sour

We are excited to introduce a new microbe to our blends: Welcome Pediococcus to the Trial & Ale family. Early on in our brewing plans, we dedicated a portion of our cellar space and barrels to barrel stock destined to be (very) long fermented. We filled these early and segregated them to wait until this traditional lactic acid producing bacteria went through the long process of creating a product that only time and Pedio can deliver. We are excited to find that our LAMF (Long-Aged Mixed Fermentation) barrels are starting to come online and are reaching maturity. We feel that these barrels, along with the slightly modified base recipe that includes a high amount of 6-year aged Lambic hops, produces a complex set of flavours that are a throwback to old world styles that can’t be achieved without a substantial amount of time in oak. One of our favourite aspects of these blends are the rich minerality akin to a pleasant slightly metallic note that produces a drying effect on the palate and leaves the taster desiring more.

HOPS: Lambic Hops - Aged 6 Years

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A melange of several different house primary strains, several select Brettanomyces strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Pediococcus damnosus, Pediococcus pentosaceus, additional house cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

5.8%

ALC/ VOL

15

IBU

Med/High

Brett. Funk

Summer 2021 - 750ml

ROBERT

Fruited American Wild Ale

Very rarely do we name a beer in such a direct way, we generally prefer references to descriptors. Over the long process of developing all of our blends from brew to barrel to bottle to label, we generally “discover” the names of our blends when we refer to them throughout the entirety of the blend production through internal references made, tasting notes, anecdotes, etc. In every step of the development of this wild blend, “Blood Orange Brett” was eventually shortened to “Bob,” which inevitably had some formality added back to it to become “Robert.” We find the interplay between our Brett cultures and blood orange difficult to define a cutoff between the flavours. Of all the citrus fruits in the realm of possibility, blood orange is definitely the most “wild” among them. This lack of a rigid structure and flavour disambiguation speaks to the inherent pairing abilities of our Brett cultures’ earthiness and the citric tang native to blood orange. Of note is that this is a wild blend, not sour, which highlights the wild funk creating properties of our cultures, while maintaining a slight fruit derived tartness and beer structure.

HOPS: German Hallertau, Saaz

MALTS: Pilsner, Rye, Wheat, Munich, Oats

YEAST: A melange of several different house primary strains, several select Brettanomyces strains, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

6.9%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

MEDIUM

Acidity

Year-Round Release - 750ml

A CORDIAL INVITATION

Fruited American Sour & Wild Ale

Fun fact: there are over 1,000 different types of cherries in existence. Our current blend focuses on the Montmorency Cherry. The pressure we placed upon ourselves with using cherries stems from our deeply held belief that cherries have a special traditional significance in the history of fruited beers. We view cherries as entirely separate from the pack when it comes to fruit. Whether long-aged, traditional method Kriek Lambics, or the truly special seasonal releases from the time-tested sour breweries of Oregon, cherries add another layer of magic to even the best sour beers. Utilizing our pale sour base beer as a canvas, we opted for a rather restrained (for us) amount of cherries in order to highlight the deep, jammy pie filling texture and flavour depth of the cherries, but thinning and brightening these flavours with the lactic acid forward nature of the underlying base blend. Although the wait was long, we are excited to bring you our take on what we consider to be a very special style.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

7.6%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

MEDIUM

Acidity

2021 Limited Release - 750ml

BARRELS #30 & #32

American Sour & Wild Ale

Cellar balance is an important part of what we need to maintain to ensure a robust stock of barrels to choose from to provide consistency from blend to blend. Maintaining variety in our cellar balance allows us to be more creative, but it also affords us the opportunity to get lucky from time to time. Once in a while, during our barrel sampling sessions, we encounter a barrel with special tasting notes. In this special limited release, we took two barrels that displayed something special or interesting, and combined them and packaged them as is. These barrels had a number of fun things going on with the flavours they were presenting. We were satisfied with both individually, and even more happy when we combined them. In blending, it’s very rare that a barrel has enough complexity to be released on its own, hence the necessity of blending. These two barrels showcased a deep aroma and forward palate flavour, but then continued with a slightly acetic note, that adds complexity at the current quantities. You can taste many of our other blends in this release, but you will not find much of this release in many of our other blends.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

2021 Blending Club Exclusive Release - 750ml

BWF

6.4%

ALC/ VOL

15

IBU

MEDIUM

Acidity

Golden Long Aged Mixed Fermentation Sour

There once was a French Oak barrel that had dreams of being more than staves, hoops and cooper’s nails. Starting its life with a medium toast, it was quickly bringing an oaked joy to all the fermenting grapes that touched it. With a particular affinity and talent for red grapes, it found purpose year after year in maturing and nurturing the vintner’s harvest. Until one day when seemingly the barrel had nothing left to give. So focused on the task at hand, that its own reserves were gone. Our barrel protagonist was cast aside, transferred to a place for barrels with neutrality. No longer able to work in the wine industry, our down and out barrel made the long journey to Edmonton, Alberta. A big change from California, but eager to make a new life for itself. It was destined for a loving home. The first change it underwent was a series of sanitary stainless steel fittings, valves, and ports. Next it was rehydrated to ensure it was still able to hold liquid. Finally, once all the new upgrades and love were installed, the barrel received a fresh batch of wort and microbes. This upgraded super-barrel, known as BWF (Barrel With Fittings) is part of our long-aged, Pediococcus inoculated cellar. It creates a delicate, thin, crisp flavour profile with a hint of citrus. We wanted to release this single barrel as an homage to BWF, and to display some of the individual barrel character that goes into our blends. BWF, with its sanitary butterfly valve, is always ready to share with visitors to the cellar on demand. With purpose and happily ever after.

HOPS: Lambic Hops - Aged 6 Years

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A melange of several different house primary strains, several select Brettanomyces strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Pediococcus damnosus, Pediococcus pentosaceus, additional house cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

7.1%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

Medium

Acidity

Annual Fall Seasonal Release - 750ml

UP AROUND
MOUNT GIOVE

Italian Grape Ale Mixed Fermentation

When it comes to fruit additions in sour beer, there are many combinations and experimentations that work well. Alternatively, there is this beer infusing a mixed fermentation blend with the blood of a Roman god. Enter the Sangiovese Grape, also colloquially known as the Blood of Jupiter. This hybrid release brings a dimension to the blend that only this thin-skinned, mildly tannic little fruit can provide. Making up traditionally ~70% of all Chianti blends, it provides a vinous reductive value to an already complex equation. With a presentation of red currant, pleasant spicy notes, with a far-off hint of tobacco leaf, the resultant flavour is far from the individuality of the inputs. Notable in this release, is the silky texture of the mouthfeel of this fairly dry blend, which is quick to create confusion in the mind and a smile on the palate. The acidic nature of the grape, amplified by our house wild yeast and bacteria microbe mix, results in a medium/high sourness that brightens the fruit’s contributions to the overall blend. We are certain that this release will provoke the internal (and likely external) dialogue regarding the nature and makeup of this beverage in your hand. We are hopeful that this limited release will help bridge the beer/wine purchasing divide among the entrenched camps and inspire unity among all who partake. Saluti!

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

6.4%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

Med/High

Acidity

Fall 2021 Limited Release - 750ml

PITAHAYA

Fruited American Sour & Wild Ale

Looks can be deceiving, and our new blend is the perfect example. The Dragonfruit is one of nature’s most beautiful edible offerings. Pink and green with pineapple like folds and turns, it protects the purple-red or stark white interior flesh of this delicate fruit. The flavour contained within could best be described as timid, but still bold. In our pale sour base, we needed to make sure that these subtle fruit flavours came through. In order to do so, we needed to increase our fruiting rate with this particular fruit. One might think that means a little more than normal. Not at all. We added so much Dragonfruit to this blend that we needed two tanks to fruit it. Like 50% more fruit than our highest fruited blend. This release holds the Trial & Ale record for “most fruit ever” and we could not be happier with the results. A wine-like profile, with almost no tannin extraction left us very pleased. A flirtatious Brettanomyces linger brings the taste home. This blend benefits from a serving temp slightly lower than cellar temps. We look forward to how this continues to develop over time.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

7.1%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

MeDIUM

Acidity

Year-Round Release - 750ml

30,000 STEPS

Fruited American Sour & Wild Ale

The pineapple is one of the most elbow-throwing fruits in the world when it comes to assertive flavours and acidity. It doesn’t wait in line, ask for directions, or care what you think. In fact, pineapples are kind of assholes. If you’ve ever experienced the joys of carving one up, you understand even better. Our challenge with this blend was to crush the spirit of the pineapple in order to have it behave like a decent member of fruit society. Balance was the goal of this blend. Fruiting rates are not one-size-fits-all, so an understanding of the target pineapple profile was key for us. Despite the general constitution of the pineapple it does have many great qualities. The flavour comes from the chemical compound Ethyl Butyrate, which is a commonly occurring ester in nature. Bright like the sun, it’s best enjoyed in pleasurable doses, as over indulging burns. We feel the intensity and level we achieved in this blend is on the mark. In the end, we made a new friend in pineapple.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

6.9%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

MeDIUM

Acidity

Seasonal Fall Release - 750ml

THAT NIGHT AT
LA CHOZA

Alberta Beverage Awards 2022 Winner

Judges' Selection: Sours

Fruited American Sour & Wild Ale

The American Southwest is an amazing place. With an arid climate and vast landscapes, it is generally considered to be a challenging environment for cultivation. However, as Jeff Goldblum so famously observed, “nature somehow finds a way.” Among the arroyos and high deserts, is a defiant hero: Opuntia, the Prickly Pear Cactus. Despite the outward appearance of this marvel of vegetation, it is amazingly thoroughly edible. Even the cactus blades (nopales) are amazing, especially when used in tacos. The ubiquity and importance of this rare survivor is noteworthy. Mexico even pays tribute to this special plant on its flag. Our focus today is on the fruit that it produces. These small, purplish, and bulbous cactus byproducts are packed with a sweet desert nectar that is a perfect companion to mixed fermentation blends. If you haven’t purchased your ticket to Santa Fe based on the description, you most definitely will after sampling. You will never be the same when you return!

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

Limited Release - 750ml

AN ERA OF
STURM UND DRANG

Fruited American Sour & Wild Ale

6.2%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

MeDIUM

Acidity

Our meticulous adherence to ridiculous hyperrationality sometimes requires a forced counterbalance. 18th Century neo-romantic era Germanic literature references seem like a fitting escape from the confines of rationality in the context of this contemporary period in North American history. Why not focus on an exploration of fervent individualism with a philosophical emotional slant, while assessing the inherent basis of good and evil? These ties seemed fitting when our inspiration for this blend comes from the mountainous alpine regions of Europe. The elderberry, while not a sweet berry, adds a depth and maturity to mixed fermentation blends unlike any other fruit. Anyone tasting an elderberry can attest to the irrational nature of the use of this fruit, because at undiluted concentrations, it is exceptionally unpalatable. However, when used in conjunction with our chosen blend, the romanticism can be found. We don’t know what irrational natural humanism tastes like, but this is what we imagine when we entertain the thought. These Elderberries journeyed from Austria to make their way to your glass. We recommend a cozy evening with Goethe while imbibing.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

7.5%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

MeDIUM

Acidity

Limited Release - 750ml

ADRIATIC AFTERNOONS

Fruited American Sour & Wild Ale

The best day of the year for us always comes in autumn. It is the day when we receive the phone call that a large amount of wine grapes have arrived and are on their way to our door. Timed with the end of the grape harvest for wine producers, this annual shipment is destined for our mixed fermentation blends. The technical classification of this particular style is known as a Grape Ale, however it is more commonly known as a Beer/Wine Hybrid. Our first foray into this style was our fall 2020 release Up Around Mount Giove, which utilized the Sangiovese grape. We loved the character and charm in that release so much we decided to expand our grape repertoire and branch out into other varietals. We settled on the Zinfandel grape. The Zinfandel grape, also known as Primitivo, is picked opportunistically at a moment in time to maximize sugar content. These sweet little water balloons of sugary joy offer a deeper shade of purple, while bringing an all-around different flavour profile to the mix. As with all of our grape blends, we are very excited to see how they continue to evolve over time. Pick up this year’s Mount Giove release as well for a side-by-side comparison of the contribution the specific grape varietals bring to the blends. While we wish we were able to produce this style year-round, the seasonal release nature of these blends allows us to cherish them even more.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

Orange Spheres on Blankets of White Transparency.png

7.0%

ALC/ VOL

<5

IBU

HIGH

Acidity

Limited Release - 750ml

ORANGE SPHERES ON BLANKETS OF WHITE

Fruited American Sour & Wild Ale

Against all odds, above the 49th Parallel North grows a hearty, spiny, sour bush. Despite the amazingly harsh conditions of its environment, defiant, glowing orange orbs of acid break through and flourish. You may have never heard of Sea Buckthorn, but chances are you have encountered it in your everyday life. These little globes of joy are the most acidic fruit we’ve ever encountered. Primarily scooped up entirely by the cosmetics industry for their high Omega 3-6-9 fatty acid contents, we had to search far and wide for our sour orange friends. This batch of Sea Buckthorn is of Siberian provenance, and with enough acidity to make facial motor function cease. We had a relatively difficult time with the solubility of this blend. We hadn’t accounted for the high fatty acid content of the fruit making it completely insoluble in solution. After some time on fruit, we ended up with half of the tank with teeth-meltingly sour liquid, and the other half of the tank with only the base beer blend. Suffice to say, after much work, we solved our solubility issues, but this release owns the title of the most stubborn blend we’ve made to date. However, the citrus-like fruit quality, combined with our blend selection makes all the memories of the production pains melt away.

HOPS: A Minuscule Addition of German Hallertau

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST: A Melange of Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

5.5%

ALC/ VOL

25

IBU

Med/High

Acidity

Fall 2022 Anticipated Release - 750ml

A GOLDEN
STATE OF BEING

Golden Long Aged Mixed Fermentation Sour

Nothing delivers more on our promise than our mature, barrel-fermented, long-aged mixed fermentation ales. Golden, dry, with a delicate slight mineral quality and carbonated to a high effervescence in order to broadcast the subtleties in the aroma and tickle the senses. With nowhere to hide, these bottles rely on only the finest of our barrels to be included in each blend. The deep earthiness is at the core of the flavour structure. What we find most interesting about this style is not what flavours are present, it’s what is no longer there. During the long maturation period these barrels go through, myriads of interstitial and transient flavours never make it to the bottles. For example, an important contributing factor to the complex flavour profile at the end of its barrel stay, is a high hop charge with aged, debittered hops that provide a temporary protective shield of sorts for the beer, but eventually fade into other compounds unrecognizable from source. The descriptors are too many to list, and the discovery is ultimately the fun to be had in these blends. These are living ales designed to be cellared and observed and visited from time to time to see how they are changing. We hope your first visit is as rewarding as all future visits.

HOPS: Aged Lambic Hops (6+ years)

MALTS: Pilsner, Wheat, Oats

YEAST/BACTERIA: Several Different House Primary Strains, Several Select Brettanomyces Strains, Sherry Flor, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Pediococcus pentosaceous, Pediococcus damnosus, Additional House Cultures, Saccharomyces bayanus for bottle conditioning

BREWERY

An Ethos Different

Edmonton's All Sour and Wild Artisanal Brewery

Our story is rather simple. We love sour and wild ales. From the lightly tart saisons to the teeth melting acidity and minerality of an aging geuze, nothing is more satisfying than finding that complexity of a mixed fermentation ale bathed in a high concentration of carbon dioxide.

So, we started making them.

We voraciously scoured every source of information we could find, translated texts, read books, read college term papers in foreign languages, conducted experiments, changed variables, then drew our own conclusions. Each experiment furthered our knowledge base and added a new, valuable data point. In documenting the results, one thing emerged as a continuing theme, diversity. If there were a tried and true method for mixed fermentation beer production, there would be how-to guides and online classes devoted to the pursuit. Ultimately, what came out of our research and development efforts was a reaffirmation of adherence to sensory training and development. There are no magic bullets. Every creation is a product of blending barrels across a spectrum of flavours. In order to maintain a cellar balance conducive to running a blending program, we needed to encourage diversity. This is where our underlying ethos developed from. Three guiding principles formed (the first of which would likely terrify most brewers):

1) Vary processes, temperatures, and microbes as much and as often as possible

2) Document everything

3) Our sensory program and taste guides every blend

With these three tenets of our values system established, we developed complicated tracking and documentation systems to manage what we were ultimately being told to do by our palates. Our work will never be done. We intend to continue to create interesting and complex beers within our own style guidelines in an effort to find what we perceive to be the perfect beer.

Based in Edmonton, AB, we’ve set up our production brewery to be 100% exclusive to mixed fermentation sour and wild beers. Our initial barrel investment allows us to guarantee that all of our beers spend time on oak during the maturation period before they are released. Additionally, all of our beers go through a minimum four stage fermentation lifecycle: initial primary fermentation, secondary fermentation on oak, a homogenizing fermentation after blending, and finally a fourth fermentation in bottle to produce the tight, silky effervescence characteristic of these unique beer styles. Some releases will also include a fifth fermentation (fruited blends) between the other fermentation steps.

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