Temptation: "Aged in French oak wine barrels for twelve months with distinct characteristics of fruit and subtle oak" sounds more like a description of wine than beer. However, Temptation is indeed beer. Temptation is a Blonde Ale aged in French oak chardonnay barrels with Brettanomyces. Flavors of wine and oak absorb into the brew throughout its aging. Temptation is re-fermented in the bottle to create its carbonation--a process commonly used to make fine champagne and sparkling wine. Spent yeast forms a thin layer of sediment to remain in the bottle.
7.25%ABV / 1.062 O.G
Silver Medal, 2007 GABF (Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer)
Gold Medal, 2006 World Beer Cup (Other Belgian Style Ale Category)
Silver Medal, 2004 World Beer Cup (Other Belgian Style Ale Category)
Silver Medal, 2003 GABF (Belgian Ale Category)
Gold Medal, 2002 GABF (Belgian Ale Category)
Concecration: A stong dark ale aged for 6 months inside used cabernet sauvignon barrels with currants added.
10.5%ABV / 1.092 O.G
Beatification is a 100% spontaneously fermented beer using the oldest barrels that no longer have any wine flavor or oak flavor left in them. However, a cocktail of "bugs and critters"(Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus & other wild yeast & bacteria.) remains in the barrel. This isn't the only place where the beer picks up its ability to ferment, before the unfermented beer heads into the oak barrels, the beer has already sat "horny" and picked up many other wild yeasts to start its life towards a true, spontaneously fermented beer.
Why age beer in barrels?
It all started in 1999 when our brewer & owner, Vinnie Cilurzo, decided he wanted to make beer using Brettanomyces, his favorite component of Belgian Lambic beer. But more specifically, he wanted to meld the unique flavors of Brettanomyces with used wine barrels from local wineries. The first barrel aged beer, Temptation, is a blonde ale aged in used Chardonnay barrels with Brettanomyces. Then came Supplication, a brown ale aged in used Pinot Noir barrels with sour cherries, Brettanomyces, and also Pediococcus and Lactobacillus.
The trend of using specific types of wine barrels for specific beers has become the cornerstone of our barrel aged beer program. The newest beer in the line up of barrel aged beers, Consecration, is now in barrels. Consecration is a dark Belgian style ale aged in American oak Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. Not only do we use Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, & Pediococcus, we also add currants to beer while it is aging in the barrels.
What is Brettanomyces?
Brettanomyces (also known as Brett) is feared by most brewers and winemakers alike. In fact, there are some local winemakers who will not set foot in our brewpub in Downtown Santa Rosa due to our use of Brettanomyces. Brettanomyces is actually yeast, it ferments and acts the same as every other "conventional" yeast, it just has the propensity to continue fermenting through almost any type of sugar, including those natural sugars found in the wood in an oak barrel. Brett is very invasive and if not handled properly can become out of control in a winery or brewery, but, if used properly with care, it can add rich aromas and flavors of earthiness, leather, smoke, barnyard, & our favorite descriptor-wet dog in a phone booth.
What is Lactobacillus & Pediococcus?
Both Lactobacillus (Lacto) and Pediococcus (Pedio) are bacteria; they are not yeast like Brettanomyces or Saccharomyces. When used properly these bacteria will add a pleasant sourness to the beer. However, a little goes a long way, and if over used a beer can become overly sour with to much tartness.
Pedio is anaerobic (meaning it lives without oxygen), and therefore a major potential spoiling bacteria in any beer. One of the major flavor developments of Pedio is the production of diacytel (butter flavor & butterscotch). This is a flavor that we are not fond of and do not want in any our beers! Whether we like it or not, the diacytel develops in every beer that goes through our barrel aging process. However, this flavor goes away and by the time the beer leaves the barrel it turns into a nice pleasant acidity. Pedio and Lacto, like all bacteria, are inhibited by the presence of alcohol. Because of this, some of our higher alcohol barrel beers do not have enough development of acidity by the bacteria. In these beers, we often blend a lower alcohol acidic barrel beer into the stronger, higher alcohol barrel beer to bring up the acidity.
How often do we get fresh barrels from local wineries?
Just like many local wineries that rotate a percentage of fresh wine barrels into their barrel program, we do the same thing at RRBC. For any given beer where we use a specific type of wine barrel for a specific type of beer (Temptation = Chardonnay barrels, Supplication = Pinot Noir barrels, Consecration = Cabernet Sauvignon barrels) we rotate in approximately 20% new barrels (that is new to us) that we pick-up from local wineries every spring. Another 20% of the lot of barrels are usually on their last leg which have just a small amount of oak & wine flavor left in them, and the remaining 60% have been in use for a couple of years at RRBC and will still have two or three years of use left. For the most part, we keep barrels in use for about five years before we rotate them into yet another barrel aged beer, Beatification.
How long do we age our beer in barrels?
There is no real formula when aging beer in barrels, the beer tells us when it is ready, not the other way around. At 9 months we start tasting each barrel and when the beer tells us it is ready, we will pull the beer out of the barrels into the final blend. Now, with that said, we tend to age our beer for 12 to 24 months before it is removed from the barrel.
What about blending?
Usually, blending is a dirty word in the beer industry, big breweries making "industrial lager" blend batches all the time to ensure that every batch taste the same. We often blend these barrel beers, but, not for consistency, but, too develop unique flavors. Sometimes there are exceptional barrels, while other times, there are barrels that just do not make the cut. These lesser barrels won't even make the final blend and often will get dumped. Blending is an important component of our barrel beers and the art of blending cannot be taught or learned over night, it is a long learning curve that we continue to improve upon every time we make a barrel aged beer.
How long will a RRBC barrel aged beer age?
On the side of each label for our barrel aged beers is a logo showing a number of hour glasses. Each hour glass represents one year potential aging if the beer is aged in a cool, dark place. So far, we've seen our barrel aged beer come into their own after a year or two in the bottle. On average we feel our barrel aged beers will age up to 5 years.
