Beer Keeps Flowing
We’ve been doing our best to keep the beer flowing during these uncertain times. With all bars in the Yukon ordered to shut down as of last night, we are still lucky to have our off-sales as an option. So here is a good news story… we are:
1) Still open for off-sales (normal hours).
2) Launching an online store (for ordering beer online for pick up).
3) Releasing two brand new beers today, which are unlike anything we’ve made before!
TASTING ROOM CHANGES
We are no longer operating as a 'Tasting Room' per se, as we won't be serving beer by the glass or food in house. Everything will be to go, including growlers, cans and bottles. We also have some food to go options, chips, kettle corn and pepperoni.
We've put in place an online order option https://winterlongbrewing.square.site. This is for customers (must be legal drinking age 19+) to pay online and be able to pick-up their order at the brewery, minimizing your time in the shop and to assist with those on quarantine/self-isolation. We are not able to do alcohol deliveries in the Yukon, but you can have someone else pick up your order.
NEW BEER RELEASES
Just over a year ago we introduced some funky Brettanomyces (aka Brett) yeast to two different beers in barrels (link to that article). Since then, they’ve been sitting cozily in their wooden wine barrel homes. We have been excited to see their progression over the past year, with fingers crossed that this fun experiment would work out. We are really pleased with their transformation.
The last piece of the puzzle was to bottle condition them. That meant dusting off our original, 2-head bottle filler for the task, as we’d already sold off our bigger 4-head filler once we got the canning line up and running. It was a slow, painful process of filling two bottles at a time, then separately capping each one. We've definitely been spoiled with the speed and ease of canning line. The bottles then sat in the brewery to bottle condition. After 3 weeks they’ve carbed up nicely.
While not everybody’s thing, beers fermented with Brett are incredibly unique. Different Brett strains can produce a whole range of aromas and flavours, from fruity (overripe pineapple, stone fruit, mango and banana), to spicy (clove and pepper), to more foreign flavours like horse blanket, leather, goat, and stinky cheese.
For our first forays into the world of Brett beer, we selected a fruit forward strain with a touch of that funkiness from Escarpment Labs, out of Ontario. We selected barley and wheat from Red Shed Malt, a craft maltster in Alberta. With the bottle conditioning process, there is yeast at the bottom of the bottle, so be careful pouring the beer to not rouse the yeast. You'll have 1-2 cm of beer (& yeast) left in the bottle.
Introducing:
Wilderness City Brett Saison (6.5%)
Wilderness City started out as an Old World Saison which was then moved to oak wine barrels for secondary fermentation with Brettanomyces for one year. Bottle conditioned. Light and refreshing, with aromas and flavours of lychee, pear, and pepper with a slight oak wine barrel influence.
Superunknown Brett Double IPA (9.2%)
Superunknown started out as a Double IPA that was moved to oak wine barrels for secondary fermentation with Brettanomyces for one year. It was then dry hopped in the barrel with Mosaic hops and then bottle conditioned. It came out very smooth for an over 9% beer, with a nice oakiness from the barrels and a juicy tropical fruitiness from both the Brett and hops.
