Trial & Ale
Edmonton, Canada Micro Brewery
Our story is rather simple. We love sour and wild ales. From the lightly tart saisons to the teeth melting acidity and minerality of an aging geuze, nothing is more satisfying than finding that complexity of a mixed fermentation ale bathed in a high concentration of carbon dioxide.
So, we started making them.
We voraciously scoured every source of information we could find, translated texts, read books, read college term papers in foreign languages, conducted experiments, changed variables, then drew our own conclusions. Each experiment furthered our knowledge base and added a new, valuable data point. In documenting the results, one thing emerged as a continuing theme, diversity. If there were a tried and true method for mixed fermentation beer production, there would be how-to guides and online classes devoted to the pursuit. Ultimately, what came out of our research and development efforts was a reaffirmation of adherence to sensory training and development. There are no magic bullets. Every creation is a product of blending barrels across a spectrum of flavours. In order to maintain a cellar balance conducive to running a blending program, we needed to encourage diversity. This is where our underlying ethos developed from. Three guiding principals formed (the first of which would likely terrify most brewers):
1) Vary processes, temperatures, and microbes as much and as often as possible
2) Document everything
3) Our sensory program and taste guides every blend
With these three tenants of our values system established, we developed complicated tracking and documentation systems to manage what we were ultimately being told to do by our palates. Our work will never be done. We intend to continue to create interesting and complex beers within our own style guidelines in an effort to find what we perceive to be the perfect beer.
Based in Edmonton, AB, we’ve set up our production brewery to be 100% exclusive to mixed fermentation sour and wild beers. Our initial barrel investment allows us to guarantee that all of our beers spend time on oak during the maturation period before they are released. Additionally, all of our beers go through a minimum four stage fermentation lifecycle: initial primary fermentation, secondary fermentation on oak, a homogenizing fermentation after blending, and finally a fourth fermentation in bottle to produce the tight, silky effervescence characteristic of these unique beer styles. Some releases will also include a fifth fermentation (fruited blends) between the other fermentation steps.
