When you are intrigued by flavors and aromas it will not take you long to see that spices, herbs and fruits play a significant role in many brewing styles. If you delve into it a bit more you will discover, rather quickly, that such fruits, spices and herbs are usually purchased a long time after they had been harvested and very often are harvested a long distance away from the brewery. They also tend to be dried and ground by (usually) big anonymous companies.
Now if you are truly “obsessed” with achieving flavors and aromas of most superb complexity like we are, you should the following experiment: Plant your own little raspberry plant or camomile seeds in your backyard, care for them as they grow and develop into fruits and flowers, respectively . When they are mature harvest them and use them immediately (DO NOT WASH THEM) . Result: You will experience flavors and aromas completely unknown to you.
This is how “Experimentalis” was born:
- Create a wonderful “base brew”
- Age it in a distinct (Zymatore) barrel
- Add fruits/berries/spices/herbs from your own orchard.
- Follow the “Unforgiving Laws of Experimentalis“
The “Unforgiving Laws of Experimentalis” are:
- Do not wash your fruits/berries/spices/herbs. The reason being, you would destroy many flavor-and aroma compounds as well as complex microbes sitting on the skin of such fruits and herbs.
- Use fruits and herbs immediately after harvesting them. Reason: These wonderful flavor and aroma compounds “disappear” in no time (technical term: they are highly volatile)
Experimentalis with Raspberries: A wheat beer aged in California Zinfandel wine barrel “refreshed” with fresh red + yellow raspberries from our own Horticultural Area.
Over a span of more than three months we picked fresh raspberries from our own orchard every second and sometimes third day. This allowed us to pick each raspberry at the peak of its “maturity”. Immediately after picking we dropped them into the wine barrel of our choice. Of course completely unwashed.
The ultimate objective , of course, is to create a completely new balance of flavors and aromas… Balancing the nuances of the “base beer”, the character of the chosen wood barrel (its tannins, wooden + vinous notes) as well as the incredibly intense notes of our own locally grown fruits, berries and herbs.
Experimentalis with Raspberries is from time to time served at our Tasting Room (a grand total of 10 kegs available). Please check our postings on OECBrewing.com, Nepenthiology.com, FaceBook.com/OECBrewing and Twitter.com/OECBrewing.
Experimentalis Batch No. 2 is in the works already, Experimentalis with Peaches… A “Belgian Style Blond Ale” that has been aged in a Pedro Ximenez barrel from Malaga/Spain and enriched with peaches from our own horticultural area. You will find it at the OEC Brewing Tasting Room in just a few weeks. Please check our postings on OECBrewing.com, Nepenthiology.com, FaceBook.com/OECBrewing and Twitter.com/OECBrewing.