We are excited to announce that Wildflower Too Easy: Hallertau Blanc will be available at our cellar door and online (at 2pm) on 7 June 2019.
2Easy HalB as we call it at the brewery is a barrel fermented, mixed culture bitter Australian Wild Ale heavily hopped with Hallertau Blanc (GR) pre, during and post fermentation before packaging. It shares the same malt base as our previous rendition of Too Easy made with Motueka, but highlights a different hop. Ever since I first worked with Hallertau Blanc to make The International back in February of 2018, I have loved how our culture expresses itself and highlights this hop. It was a natural choice for me to revisit when looking at expressing it solely in a rendition of Too Easy.
As I noted when we first releases 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 April 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 monthlong fermentation, we hopped once more and packaged it in green bottles and allowed it to condition for another month.
We are loving how this beer is drinking and do not expect it to be long before we tweak and re-brew it. It is a great interplay of Wildflower citrus and strong hop aromas of melon, passion fruit and subtle herbaceous dank. The palate showcases the Hallertau Blanc wonderfully. Upfront it is full of passion fruit, melon and grape. A firm driving bitterness gives length but also closes the palate out in a clean and satisfying way.
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 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 April 16 2018 and naturally conditioned through refermentation for 7 weeks. At bottling it was 5.0% ABV, 40 IBU and 1.4°P (FG= 1.004 SG).
Like all our beers, Too Easy is best enjoyed when decanted off a settled natural yeast sediment at cellar temperatures (10-12°C).
