We are excited to announce that Wildflower Too Easy will be available at our cellar door and online at 2pm (Sydney time) on Friday 8 November 2019.
Too Easy is a barrel fermented, mixed culture bitter Australian Wild Ale hopped with a blend of Saaz, Motueka and Hallertau Blanc hops pre, during and post fermentation. It shares the same malt base as our previous renditions of Too Easy variants with Galaxy, Motueka, Hallertau Blanc, but employs a variety of hops rather than going heavy on one. It has been my plan to make 'Too Easy' a staple in the brewery and have been playing around with these hops one by one to see where they are best used. I may work on adding Galaxy into the mix as well after seeing how well that one is tasting, but if we do... the beer will still just be called 'Too Easy'. We absolutely love drinking this beer at the cellar door and are excited to make it, in some ways a standard.
As I noted when we first released Too Easy: Motueka, for these beers, my aim is to reduce the total hop volume I use in each of these beers while maximising the character we eventually yield. By hopping the wort in barrel at the same time as pitching our yeast slurry, we not only stymie our house culture's souring nature but also allow for biotransformation of hops which alter non-aromatic glycosides into aromatic terpenoids (increasing the impression of hops). We also then dry-hop the beer before packaging for a little added touch of fresh aromatics.
It was brewed with malted barley, wheat and rye in July 2019. We hopped it across the boil and in whirlpool to 40 IBU before barrel fermenting it and dry-hopping in barrel immediately at fermentation. After a month long fermentation, we hopped once more and packaged it in green bottles.
At release it has a hop dominant nose of cut grass, Star jasmine, white grape juice backed by subtle spice. A compact punchy palate chock full of citrus and tropical fruit. Crisp with firm bitterness and a wisp of acidity to finish.
The base beer is brewed entirely with New South Wales cereals: Single Origin (S.O.) Moree, NSW grown Gairdner ale malt thanks to Provenance Malt as well as S.O. malted wheat and S.O. malted rye from Voyager Craft Malt (Riverina, NSW). It is made with filtered Sydney water and Saaz (CZ), Motueka (NZ) and Hallertau Blanc (GR) hops. Finally, it was fermented with our house culture: brewers yeast, foraged wild yeast and naturally occurring souring bacteria native to New South Wales. It was bottled on 21 Aug 2019 and naturally conditioned through refermentation for 11 weeks. At bottling it was 5.0% ABV, 40 IBU and 1.3°P (FG= 1.005 SG).
Like all our beers, Too Easy is best enjoyed when decanted off a settled natural yeast sediment at cellar temperatures (10-12°C).
