Wildflower Gold Blend #1

April 18, 2017 Topher Boehm

We are excited to announce that Wildflower Gold Blend #1 will be available online and at select locations from Thursday 20 April, 2017.

Gold is a blended barrel aged Australian Wild Ale. Blend #1 is a blend of two barrels, 1602 and SponSai. 1602 is the second barrel we filled in the year 2016 (this is how we denote the barrels at Wildflower). The beer was brewed in late December 2016 and racked into the barrel on the last day of that year. This barrel was a superior example of what our house culture of brewers yeast and native wild yeasts shows. It has lent to the blend significant funk, moderate acidity and interesting fermentation characteristics. SponSai has a great history best told in person. The beer in this barrel was brewed clean and remained intentionally uninfected for the majority of its life. Alone, the beer was quite oaky with a lengthy body from the raw wheat and extended maturation in oak. In the blend, it lends an aged character most easily noticed in the presence of French oak characteristics.

The base beer is brewed entirely with New South Wales cereals: Single Origin (S.O.) Moree, NSW grown Gairdner ale malt and North Star, NSW grown Spitfire S.O. raw wheat thanks to Provenance Malt, and Riverina grown Janz S.O. raw wheat from Voyager Craft Malt. It is made with filtered Sydney water and Motueka (NZ) and Saaz (CZ) 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 March 4 2017 and naturally conditioned through refermentation for 6 weeks. At bottling it was 5.0% ABV, 25 IBU and 0.7°P (FG= 1.003 SG).

Like all our beers, Gold Blend #1 is best enjoyed when decanted off a settled natural yeast sediment at cellar temperatures (10-12°C).

Bend #1 will be available on Thursday 20 April 2017 through our online shop here or from one of the excellent retailers below:

NSW