A Closer Look at the New Off Color Beer Emblems
In order to best convey the processes involved and flavors one can expect in our beers, we’ve started adding emblems (pictured above) to many packaged offerings. These emblems will inform beer drinkers on a wide range of factors such as fermentation type, fermentation vessel, etc., as well as serve as signifiers to beer drinkers as to what flavor profiles they should expect. Knowing we make a wide range of beers with a wide range of flavor profiles, we hope having this information available helps improve the beer buying and drinking experience.
Let’s go into a bit more depth about what each of these emblems means to us. In no way do we see this as a definitive list and we will certainly add new emblems as the occasion (as with the new “Cat” emblem on the upcoming House Lion four packs) demands.
Foedre Aged — Beers aged in one or more of our five Italian Barolo foedres or one Calvados foedre. Each foedre was inoculated with a different microbial culture or cultures.
Barrel Aged — Beer aged in wood in any capacity with the exception of our foedre hall. Some are aged in five hectoliter puncheons or smaller barrels sourced from various wineries or distilleries. These beers typically pick up unique characteristics from the culture inoculated in the wood, extract spirit or wine flavors, or merely take on a pleasant aged character.
Stainless — Beers fermented and aged in stainless fermenters that obtain most of their characteristic from the pitched microbial culture whether it be traditional yeast or a non-saccharomyces culture.
Blended — Beers blended together from different batches each having unique aging and fermentation characteristics that achieve balance and flavor profiles that are not achievable by single source aging or fermentation.
Experimental — Beers using techniques or raw ingredients which have limited traditional context and knowledge base.
High Gravity — Beers with a starting sugar content of at least 18% sugar by weight. These beers will typically ferment to 10% or more alcohol by volume. And before you get cute, that’s a hydrometer (an instrument used to measure the specific gravity of liquids) pictured.
Botanical — Beers with herbs, spices, or other plants added that contribute unique characteristics from essential oils, polyphenols, and other organic compounds.
Fruited — Beers with fruit added to contribute fermentable sugar and create signature fruity flavor and aroma profiles.
Traditional — Beers inspired by uncommon, historical styles of beer.
Smoked — Beers made with malt smoked over a wide variety of woods in our custom-built drum malt smoker. This can impart classic or unique smoke profiles.
Wild fermentation — Beers fermented with yeasts sourced from the wild, which can come from anywhere that is not a yeast lab. These yeast strains are undomesticated and can produce beers with a wide variety of flavors from delicately floral to aggressively funky and acidic. Wild fermentation emblems may be assigned to mixed fermentations as long as one of the strains is sourced from the wild.
Native fermentation — Beers fermented with wild yeast specifically sourced from nature. These wild yeasts are undomesticated, but come from sources such as floating in the air or residing on plant life. Native yeasts are always wild, but wild yeasts are not always native. Native fermentation emblems may be assigned to mixed fermentations as long as one of the strains is sourced from nature.
Mixed fermentation — Beers fermented with more than one type of yeast or bacteria. The blend of strains can be domesticated or undomesticated or sourced from the wild or from a laboratory. The cultures are selected and work together to create complimentary fermentation flavors in the finished beer. Only mixed fermented beers using domesticated strains will get a mixed fermentation emblem.
Acid — Beers with a noticeable level of acidity that can range from tart to intensely sour. Acid profile can be described as citric (lemons), malic (rhubarb, granny smith green apples), tannic (red wine), and/or acetic (vinegar).
Funky — Beers with non-standard aromas and flavors that by themselves may be unpleasant but in small amounts add complexity. Can include lightly floral, musky, barnyard, and/or rotting fruit. Most commonly, these are derived from wild yeasts and bacteria.
Looking for a bit more information? Check out this post from Taylor Laabs of Porch Drinking to learn a bit more about our inspiration and process behind coming up with these new packaging emblems.
