OnTap Magazine

STYLE GUIDE BREW-IT-YOURSELF Blending is a crucial - and highly enjoyable - part of spontaneous ale brewing Spontaneously fermented beers are laborious and extremely time consuming, from the complicated brew day to the lengthy ageing time and delicate blending process. Because of this, few homebrewers attempt the style. But if you did want to give it a go at home, producing a wild fermented beer would be a great club challenge. After a group brew day, each brewer could age their portion at home, coming together three or four years later to blend the individual batches into one perfect beer. relationship with yeast and nature. A brewery is a magnet for yeasts that specialise in fermenting grain sugars. is mutual attraction creates a microclimate in the brewery that can sustain brewer’s yeast, and over generations, can create a “house” avour. Our brewery was a winery for over 100 years before we brewed our rst batch, leaving a living, breathing micro ora for us to use, with yeasts in the rafters and on the tank walls, surrounded by fruit orchards and vineyards. WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN Spontaneously fermented ales have been produced the same way for likely thousands of years. Much of the twentieth century produced a steady march of consolidation and homogenisation in the beer industry. By the 1970s spontaneous ales became obscure – indeed, close to extinct, but thankfully the Lambic brewers of Belgium kept the tradition of using wild yeast alive. Today there is a booming following for these wild, complex beers. ese wild-fermented beers are among the most sought-after by connoisseurs, reeled in by avours like musty barnyard, citrus-like acidity, pepper, red berry, ripe fruit and an aroma often described as “horse blanket”. Spontaneous beer is an exciting experience that explodes with a complex array of intense, bright avours. Our version, Spontaneous Ale of Origin, is commanding with a zesty, lemon acidity, balanced by a fruity character reminiscent of the plums, grapes, citrus and nectarines grown in the area. A dynamic, funky Brettanomyces and grain dimension adds an extra level of complexity. Out of all the brewing methods in the world, spontaneous fermentation is by far the oldest. e rst beers ever created were fermented with wild yeast, and every yeast in use today is descended from wild yeast. TRADITIONAL BREWING METHODS e traditional Lambic methods for creating spontaneous beer are an arcane, mysterious process. ese methods defy almost every brewing rule, forgoing modern advancements and following traditional, sometimes superstitious methods. ese are seasonal beers, only brewed in winter, when the yeast in the air is just right, and the hot wort will cool down in the optimum amount of time. We rst brewed Spontaneous Ale of Origin in the winter of 2017, before we opened Soul Barrel and traditionally do a batch every winter. ese beers are tasted often and while it’s impossible to predict a release date it will be a matter of many years before the beer is ready. e grain is traditionally comprised of local barley and a high percentage of unmalted wheat. is raw, unmalted grain adds long chain starches in addition to the short chain sugars normally used during fermentation. Regular brewer’s yeast can’t consume starch. is leaves them for the wild yeast and bacteria, providing valuable nutrients during the years of fermentation. In a bid to make a truly South African spontaneous ale, we sourced local South African barley and raw wheat from Swellendam. Another unconventional ingredient is the use of aged hops. Typically hops are prized for their fresh character, and brewers are pedantic about storing them carefully to retain that freshness. Spontaneous brewers leave hops open to the air, storing them in the rafters – the warmest spot of the brewery – for years. Ageing reduces the bitterness and avour impact of the hops, while maintaining just the right amount of the plant’s preservative properties. e laborious brewing process begins with a turbid mash, a technique near-legendary for its di culty. e grain is mixed in with very little water, and through numerous temperature steps a starchy, "turbid" portion is pulled o to keep the complex starch chains intact, while slowly adding more water. is painstaking but fascinating process can take up to three hours. e long mash is followed by an extended boil, usually three hours or more, with the aged hops. is concentrates the sugars and carbohydrates and adds colour and avour. After boiling, instead of cooling the wort and pitching yeast, the boiling wort is transferred directly into a coolship. e coolship is a shallow vessel, designed to expose the wort to the outside air, which will The terroir around Soul Barrel Brewing Fermentation begins... Pretty as a pellicle - all part of the spontaneous fermentation process 48 | Spring 2021 | ontapmag.co.za