Introducing Art Dekkera, a wild American saison. This beer is a project that has been years in the making, and a true testament to the alchemy that happens in our barrel program. The beer started as Pearly Wit, our country-style witbier, which was then barrel-aged with brettanomyces. That liquid was blended 50/50 with a golden ale aged on blueberries. The end result is a beer full of expressive oak flavor and subtle fruit notes that presents itself differently with each sip.
Art Dekkera has aromas of ripe fruit and berry, with a soft acidity and bright fermentation character. This complexity really came through once the end product was finished bottle conditioning.
When the initial batch of Pearly Wit used was brewed over two years ago, the particular batch wasn’t fully fermented. However, our team found a way to rejuvenate the liquid into something quite delicious.
After being transferred over from the main brewhouse, the Pearly was put into wine barrels with brettanomyces. The oak-aged beer had notes of berries and stone fruit at this stage. Quietly slumbering in our Barrel Room was another beer — a blend of six different golden base beers that had been fermented with brettanomyces, lactobacillus, and pediococcus and aged on blueberries for two and a half years.
In a stroke of inspiration, our barrel specialist Greg Remmilard decided to blend these two batches to craft Art Dekkera: a one-of-a-kind wild ale.
“Having a barrel program like Springdale allows us to take a slightly off-spec batch from the main brewery and transfer it into oak for a refermentation, says Remmilard. “What was used for Art Dekkera might have failed as Pearly Wit, but given time, it blossomed into something unique. We’re so happy with it that we actually worked to recreate that base in a recent batch.”
As you can imagine, replicating this beer borders on the impossible. So moving forward, we plan to use the Art Dekkara name as an exhibition for some of the wild and weird projects we’ve got going. Until then, be sure to check out this installment while it’s around. Don’t touch the art, drink it!
