[MUSIC PLAYING]
So Tommy, we have three
bottles here in front of us.
You tell me that they
are all sour beers.
Absolutely.
How did they become sour?
So as part of the process
of making sour beer,
you have two choices.
And one is-- this is the very
traditional Belgian way, which
is to spontaneously
ferment those beers.
And that's how they
make lambic and gueuze
and the beers of the Brussels
and the Senne Valley.
We also have some of the more
Western Flanders and types
beers that are made
with a mixed culture.
And so the way we
do it is we ferment
the beer in stainless steel.
And then we go ahead and
come back after the fact,
put the beer into a
barrel, and put a new set
of cultures in those barrels.
And those cultures really allow
the secondary fermentation
to occur.
They're wild yeasts.
So we have Brettanomyces,
which is yeast.
And we also have two
souring organisms--
one being pediococcus and the
other being lactobacillus.
Lactobacillus is the same
thing that makes yogurt tart.
And it gives a really
nice flavor to beer.
But it's a real slow working
organism, and so it needs time.
That's why aging
it in the barrel
really is a big part
of that process.
It also needs a little
bit of oxygen to work.
So putting it in a barrel
that has the ability
to breathe a little
bit through the wood,
through the porous parts,
aids in that process.
So we'll go ahead and
open one, and we'll
talk about what we've
got going on here.
In front of us are
three of the beers
that we've produced
at the Lost Abbey that
go out into distribution.
These are three sour beers--
Red Poppy, Framboise,
and our Cuvee.
Each of them is very
different in its makeup
and yet has similar textures and
layers and organisms going on.
So I'm an open Red Poppy today.
It's one of my favorite
labels that we produce.
It's very beautiful.
And I think it's just
a great fantastic beer.
So what we've got in this beer
is about a 7% alcohol base.
And we've added to it
some sour cherries.
And so you're going to get this
really nice refreshing acidity
from the organisms and
the cherries themselves.
And at the same time, there's
also a baseline carmel note
and some wood.
So it's got this texture
of both wine and beer.
So cheers to that.
Cheers.
Have a little.
So Tommy, you
mentioned wild yeast.
What does that mean?
So the bulk of beer
these days is actually
made from a single
cell organism.
That is pure brewer's
yeast or Saccharomyces.
And not all beer used
to be made that way.
It wasn't until Louis Pasteur
came along and basically
isolated the cultures that make
beer sour from the pure strains
that we got the
beers and the brewing
process that we have today.
So about 150 years
ago, beer changed.
And all beer used to have
wild organisms in it.
And now the goal
of beer production
is to make beer very clean and
with one single type of yeast
character and component to it.
To make beers like
these, to make
some of these wild
and sour beers,
you have to sort of
open up the book.
And you have to be
willing to tackle
a new type of fermentation,
what we call mixed fermentation,
hybrid fermentation,
sour beer production.
And that's a challenge
because all of our breweries
are set up to deal
with keeping beer
down to one single type
of yeast and keeping
those yeast in check.
This is a sort of a
wild child project.
And one of the reasons that
we have so much oak behind us
is to sort of take a lot of
that outside of the brewery,
put it in a facility, control
it, and then bring it back.
The process of making sour beer
for us is to ferment it with
a single strain, move
it into the barrels,
and then what we
call inoculate--
or what we bring into play--
all of these new microorganisms
and these other wild yeast
and things that make for
way more interesting beer.
And it can take anywhere
from 9 to 18 months
to go through the phase where
it becomes tart, then sour,
and then really developed.
It has a real texture that's
very different than what
we would call straightforward
beer or traditional beer.
And in doing so, it has its
own sort of life of its own.
And that life of its own
means that not every barrel
behaves the same way.
Every barrel has the chance
to sort of be different.
And it really focuses--
when it comes back for
us-- to put that beer
in the bottle on
the packaging side
and really what amounts
to the blending process.
And so we may fill
60 oak barrels
to make this batch of Red Poppy.
And we may only use 40 of
them when we're said and done
because we're looking to
blend the right amount of acid
with the right amount of fruit,
put the right amount of oak,
and give the beer the structure
that it's looking for.
Because of that for people
that really appreciate
and prize sort of wine model--
real connoisseurs of wine-- have
found that these types of beers
really appeal to them.
Well, let's give it a taste.
Mmm.
Definitely a lot of
layers of complexity.
Yeah.
And what we've
got here is a beer
that's about 18 months old.
This is released in January.
So we're looking at almost two
years from start to finish.
It really has a nice
acid flavor that
brings out the cherry
component, which
is sort of the piece of
the beer that we're really
looking to drive.
This is not an overly
oaky beer, although there
is an oak base to it.
But at the same time, we
really want the acid in blend
with the oak.
So we're tasting Red Poppy.
We have two more
tell us about these.
Sure.
So this is Framboise de Amarosa.
This is our fruit
raspberry beer.
But it has a much more bombastic
fruit quality about it.
A little bit higher
in alcohol-- that
helps to support
that fruit quality.
In order to have
that much fruit,
we need a little more sweetness.
And with the two
of those working
together makes for a
little bit richer beer.
And how about this
last one here?
So this is Cuvee de Tomme
or Tommy-- or Cuvee to Me,
as we call it.
This is the eponymous
beer of the world.
The strongest one of the three,
it's about 10 and 1/2 to 11%.
It has the most barrel quality.
So there's is a blend of
French oak, some bourbon oak,
as well as a little bit
of some brandy barrel.
Well, this barrel really creates
a lot of magic in this place.
It's a lot of fun
to hang out in.
It is a lot of fun
to hang out in.
The presumption is these
bottles are good for cellaring?
Absolutely.
Because the beer's
already sour, that
gives it a running head start.
The only thing that we sort of
talk about with respect to that
is that the fruit intensity
is going to change over time.
We recommend drinking these
at no more than two years,
although certainly
they can go longer.
But the intensity of the
flavors is going to change.
And availability-- they're
brewed once a year.
Yeah.
Very short life.
I mean, it's a--
we're working every
day to add more barrels
to the mix behind us.
They really are
difficult to make
because we can't fill 200
barrels and yield 200 barrels.
So we get what we get, and
we're working every year
to increase that.
Well, cheers to cellars.
Cheers.
Thank you.
Enjoy.
