We are excited to announce that Wildflower Gold Blend #3 will be available at our cellar door and online on Saturday 3, June 2017.
Gold is a blended, barrel aged Australian Wild Ale. Blend #3 is a blend of two barrels, 1726 and NoSai. The beer in 1726 was brewed on 27 February 2017 and racked into the barrel on the last day of that month. At blending, this barrel was showing great signs of both our house culture and a fresh example of Gold. It had a subtle acidity while still displaying fresh lime and citrus characteristics. NoSai, the sister of sponsai in Blend #1, 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. The intention for this blend was to bring some fresher characteristics to Gold like stone fruit, lime, grapefruit and lemon. Ongoing, this is really what we would like to see; however, the blended beer still has great notes of barrel character with a long mouthfeel and oak.
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 May 4 2017 and naturally conditioned through refermentation for 4 weeks. At bottling it was 5.0% ABV, 25 IBU and 0.8°P (FG= 1.003 SG).
Like all our beers, Gold Blend #3 is best enjoyed when decanted off a settled natural yeast sediment at cellar temperatures (10-12°C).
**We have noticed in tasting that Gold Blend #3 is best when allowed to rest open for a minute or so before enjoying. There seems to be an aroma from refermentation that needs to breathe off. We learning every day about our culture and are taking this aroma as a lesson.**
Blend #3 will be available on Saturday 3 June 2017 through our cellar door or online shop here.
