OnTap Magazine

STYLE GUIDE It is beer in its most traditional form; a historical style that predates modern brewing technology. Nick Smith takes us through the history, the science, the art and the magic of spontaneous fermentation. STYLE GUIDE S pontaneously fermented beers are some of the strangest, most fantastic beers in the world. Rather than a brewer adding specially cultured yeast, these beers ferment with yeast naturally present in the air. Found on everything from fruits to ceiling rafters, the yeasts are picked up by the wind and sprinkled around the brewery. Fermentation goes on for years and is left to chance. ese rare, mysterious beers deliver a complexity, intensity and balance that rivals anything in the food and drink world. You might be familiar with the term “terroir” and while you most likely associate it with wine, it also applies to beer. Terroir refers to the unique climatic and geographical conditions that work together to create a distinct grape – or malt, hop, or yeast. While terroir isn’t often talked about in beer, spontaneously fermented beers have a fascinating sense of terroir. When you taste these beers, you are tasting history, nature, evolution. ese beers ask you to let go of what you know of as beer and embrace the wild, unexpected and exciting edges of brewing art. Over four years ago, at Soul Barrel Brewing, we began a journey to create spontaneously fermented beer in the Cape Winelands, a region internationally renowned for its fruit and wine. Lurking on the skins of all this produce is a distinct world of micro ora that we hoped could make amazing beer. Our Spontaneous Ale of Origin is one of the most extraordinary beers we've ever made. Its creation marks a high point in our quest to brew beers with a unique sense of time and place. BREWING WILD Yeast is a fascinating organism. It is among the most studied in the world and the rst organism to have its DNA sequenced. It is also the most abundant. e world is literally covered in yeast. It's in the air, on plants, on bugs, on the walls and on your clothes. But despite the abundance of yeast on the planet, there are only a select few species which make good beer. Brewers have been wrangling yeast since the dawn of civilisation. Today, a key characteristic of the vast majority of beers is an isolated yeast strain, which has been specialised over centuries of evolution to brew a particular beer. Brewing technology enables us to create a consistent, reliable product. However, to achieve this consistency, brewers have sometimes sacri ced some of a beer’s personality. In spontaneous fermentations, yeasts nd their way into the wort and then outcompete other organisms to create a magic elixir. ese wild beers are an achievement in evolution. e carefully selected environment brewers of spontaneous ales create provides a path for great beer, despite the odds. Since these beers are wild and open to the air, spontaneous breweries work in a symbiotic ontapmag.co.za | Spring 2021 | 47