While it would be nice to romanticize blending our beer as an opportunity to sit back and have a delightful drink it’s actually a very serious step in our process to create the best, most balanced beer possible. In many breweries blending is undertaken by one master blender but we see it as a team sport. Doug leads the process, but all of the brewers, many of the staff and sometimes special guests are involved in evaluating different blends to best achieve our targets.
Blending is a definitive act where we use a variety of barrels to create a beer that matches the goal for that brand. In our shop it’s very serious business!
Our blends can be from as few as two barrels and as many as eight barrels. Our biggest tank is 5000 litres, and eight of the 400 litre barrels fills up a tank to a level where it’s got some headspace in case some additional fermentation takes place. This can lead to some pretty big batch sizes and given the geographic breadth we’re trying to reach with our beers it’s nice to have some volume to work with.
By using multiple barrels we can decide to emphasize or balance various elements of our final beers. For example, in the case of Mon Chester we found a bunch of Sicilian red wine barrels gave the beer bright fruity raspberry notes and we decided to emphasize the fruit in the blend and selected barrels accordingly. If we had a beer that was too sharp and acidic in the blend we can add a more neutral barrel to balance it out. We’ve got very specific targets in mind for acid levels and flavour profiles.
In our blending process we do also undertake some scientific analysis of the in-progress beer. Acid levels in particular are evaluated via a pH measurement and a Total Titratable Acid (TTA) measurement. In this way we’ve got both our palettes and hard numbers to verify what we taste in our beer. So, in summary, blending is both an art and a science with a goal of making you the best possible beer.
With a few small exceptions the vast majority of the beer that’s made at the Blind Enthusiasm spends a significant amount of time in barrels. We typically use larger format barrels called puncheons that can be anywhere from 350 litres to 500 litres in size. We used to have some 700 litre puncheons but they were too darned big so we sold them to a friend. Finally we’ve got a handful of large wooden foeders, roughly 1300 litres in size. These are giant vessels that were previously used in Italy for wine production but we’ve done multiple batches of beer in them. Almost all of these vessels are made with French oak, the preferred type of wood due to its density and oxygen permeability. We’ve got a few other types of wooden barrels but those are rare because French oak is perfect for our methods.
For both spontaneous and mixed fermentation we put the wort into barrels very shortly after it’s inoculated. We then wait, and in the case of spontaneous fermentation we wait a long time.
It can be weeks until fermentation begins. Once it begins there’s an initial burst of activity and then a very long, slow fermentation that can literally last for years. One reason for this is our wort is very complex with lots of different types of sugars that require the action of multiple microorganisms often acting in concert to break it down into digestible chunks. We’re done some exciting research that shows just how complex this process is and how spontaneous fermentation is really a team effort. We evaluate the process of fermentation by doing chemical tests on the beer, but also by tasting it. Unlike normal beer that has a very predictable pattern of fermentation our methods are less predicable and require constant care and attention. We have over 400 puncheons in our brewery so that leads to a lot of tasting. Our brewers need to be on top of every single barrel so we know how to create the best possible blends.
We don’t ever use any barrels less than one year old in our blends and can often have beers that stay in barrel for up to four years. Our prized Homage to the Old Ones is made of all four year spontaneously fermented barrels – a real rarity. One thing that also keeps fermentation going long term is the slow ingress of oxygen into the barrel through the wood - French oak has the ideal permeability to keep fermentation going for years. Beer from different ages of barrels usually have different characteristics with the beer from younger barrels being brighter and fruiter than the savory and leathery older barrels. Ultimately these different characteristics are almost like the wide range of paints on a painter's palette, giving our brewers a wide range of flavors to use in their blends.
We can’t be the only ones to be excited to talk about inoculation! Funny enough it’s a key part of our unique process in making beer so it is something we talk about a lot. We’d like to tell you about the two ways we create our beer – read on for the details!
When making beer one of the first steps is the conversion of malt to its constituent sugars and nutrients when is then converted to beer. This initial conversion to sugar and nutrients is done by adding water to malt then heating it to various temperatures to trigger and enhance enzymatic conversion. This is common to all beers though there are many different mashing processes that can be used to create unique beers. We’ll give you a quick outline of the turbid mashing process we use.
Mixed fermentation is the process of fermenting wort into beer by manually adding lab grown microorganisms to the wort the morning after it is brewed. This wort destined to be a mixed fermentation beer is cooled in a sterile tank over night and the next morning we introduce a blend of microorganisms into the wort before it is pumped into barrels.
A couple years ago we had the great privilege of pouring beer at Foudres Unis, a beer festival hosted by Brasserie Dunham in Quebec. Once we arrived in Dunham, we were told that we would be sharing accommodations with the folks from Twin Sails. We had never met the Twin Sails team before but weren’t concerned as most folks in the brewing business tend to be easy to get along with. To make matters even better, the generous folks at Dunham provided each accommodation with a case of their beer, so we got to work sampling the wares with Cody, Clay and Eli and got to know each other over a few beers and next couple days. As tends to happen in these circumstances we thought it would be a great idea to do a mixed fermentation collab together at some point. We didn’t have a specific plan or date in mind, but the intention was clear.
In early 2019 we heard that Eli was traveling to Edmonton along with Jeffrey, one of the Twin Sails sales team, for a local festival and tap takeover so we put our collaboration plan in to action. Eli and Doug worked together to plan out the recipe opting to go with something different thqn our standard base wort. Typically, our brewery–the Monolith–beers use just Pilsner Malt and Unmalted Wheat. The idea was to change it up with the addition of Caraaroma and Munich malts to add fruitiness and depth, which would highlight the use of freshly emptied Spanish red wine barrels we happened to have. The wort was made using the turbid mash method typically used for the Monolith beers and placed into the fresh 500L Spanish red wine barrels with a house blend of microorganisms. As you may have noted from a prior post, we’ve learned that our mixed fermentations beers peak after 12 to 18 months in barrel, so true to form we waited until 16 months before blending the batch and some additional barrels to round out the blend. As we bottle condition all of the Monolith beers it spent nearly 9 months in the cellar until we felt the secondary fermentation and conditioning were complete.
It also picked up some tannin from the barrels which helps round out the texture. We don’t have any special hop additions in this beer beyond our standard aged hops, so it has low bitterness. Finally, it has a medium level of acidity that does a great job emphasizing the red fruit notes that characterize this beer.
The name of this beer and branding stem from its origin. One Night in Dunham we met the folks from Twin Sails and agreed to make a beer with them. The label is an homage to their iconic style combined with our passion for landscape art on our expansive beers. We hope you like it.
Our first release of 2021 is Mentis Oculi, an addition to our Dry Hop Series from our brewery, the Monolith. Like its sibling Un Petit Peu we used a blend of mixed fermentation barrels from our first batches of beer fermented in Marsala barrels. You’re likely wondering why it’s taken much longer for this beer to be released in comparison, and there is a very good reason for it. Barrel fermented beer can be fermented for between one and four years, changing and developing character over time.
Previously we have made blends when our barrels were younger (about 1 year) as they showed great characteristics for young barrels. We did however sit on the remaining barrels for another six to eight months and discovered that additional fermentation time further rounded out their character and made for a more delicious beer.
Mentis Oculi differs from previous Dry Hop Series beers due to a change in hop varietal in the dry-hopping regime. Dry-hopping is a process where we add fresh pelletized hops to a finished beer in order to extract hop oils and resins to add hop character to the beer. For Mentis Oculi we wanted to combine both old world and new world hop character. To achieve this, we used a combination of German Tettenang and American Simcoe. We expected the combination of these two very different hops would result in something more than the sum of their parts.
Like other beers in the Dry Hop Series this one also features art from the mural on the back of the Monolith by the amazing Mr. Cenz. The piece of the mural we chose the label also happens to reflect the title of the beer (Mentis Oculi means “of an eye”).
The fourth release from The Monolith is another first: it is our first fruit beer. Fruitful Pursuits: Plum is the first in a series of fruit beers from our brewery, The Monolith. We’ll be doing a number of fruit beers under the “Fruitful Pursuits” umbrella that will be accompanied by the fruit or blend of fruits in the name. To create this beer, we used more than 750kg of ripe Damson and Presidents plums shipped directly from the Okanagan. We processed the plums by hand (removing about a third of the pits and squishing them to disrupt the skins), and then added the crushed plums to our specially designed fruiting tanks. We have very fond memories of “Plum Squishing Day”!
We used whole fruit to make this beer, the hardest and most time-consuming way to make a fruit beer. But it’s absolutely worth it.
The barrels selected for this blend were from batches of mix-fermentation beer from our first year of production. We selected nicely balanced and fruit forward barrels to enhance the Plum character with the knowledge that the plums will add some brisk acidity to the beer. The plums sat on the beer for two months and the mixture went through another round of fermentation as the sugar from the plums was consumed. The resulting beer has a beautiful ruby-purple color, lots of bold plum character and a medium-high acidity. We always aim for balance in our beers, and even though Fruitful Pursuits: Plum is our most acidic beer to date it is still has a delightful fruit character and full texture.
Fruit beers are fairly common and there are several different processes that breweries use to create them. If one were looking for just fruit flavouring, one could simply use a fruit extract, a chemically processed syrup that contains “fruit essence” or artificial fruit flavour. Many breweries wanting a natural fruit flavour use pureed fruit, which is mechanically processed fruit, processed and often pasteurized to be easier to transport and utilize. Traditionally breweries would use fresh, unprocessed whole fruit, which not only adds flavour of the fruit but also character from the skins, seeds, and stems. The fruit (whatever the source) is generally added after primary fermentation. With almost all methods, apart from fruit extract as it adds next to no sugar, the beer and fruit will go through a secondary fermentation. This fermentation will vary in time and complexity depending on the availability of the sugar and complexity of fermentation. A puree has fermentable sugars that are well disrupted and readily accessible, thus fermenting quickly and cleanly. The puree processing removes parts of fruit that could also add further complexity. Using whole or lightly crushed fruit leads to a slow fermentation process because the sugars are not as readily available. This benefits different microorganisms from the beer and fruit allowing time to create different compounds adding to flavour complexity and depth. Different parts of the fruit such as the stems and seeds also have time to break down and release tannins, phenolic compounds, and acids further adding to the depth of flavour and colour.
In many ways Fruitful Pursuits: Plum is an homage to the great fruit beers of our favorite traditional breweries. There for, as you may have guessed, we used whole fruit to make this beer, which admittedly is the most labour intensive and time-consuming way to make a fruit beer. But it is absolutely worth it! Fruitful Pursuits: Plum was a lot of work, it was also a true labour of love. We’re really proud of this beer and look forward to its imminent release on Friday, August 21st. We’ll have 750ml and 375ml bottles available at our location, as well as select liquor stores throughout Alberta. We hope you like it.
