With the launch of the taproom in February, A LOT of people have commented on how odd our location is and how they were confused because the address is on Hurst but the entrance is on Kent and there is no 20-foot directional sign with flashing lights. Honestly, there probably never will be. Things will change. We’ll get more signage eventually - as I can afford it - but I firmly believe that anything worthwhile is also worth looking for. Yes, I want people to know about and come visit our taproom and bottle shop, but I’m also totally good with providing a bit of a more unique experience by being off the beaten path (even though we’re literally on the paved Iron Horse Trail) and not being the best-known spot in town. We have a very small system and our beer often takes a long time to make. We’re also not always known for our approachability in the flavour department. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m not trying to confuse anyone, but I am not in favour of flashing lights either. If you find your way down to the homebrew shop, bottle shop, taproom or brewery, then I hope you’ll be able to enjoy something unique and that you’ll find our little spot - as I do - worth finding. That little rant leads me into the actual point of this blog post: Confusion.
So, let's talk Lando.
I am hoping that if you are reading this blog you know that I am referring to our blended Sour Saison project at SFBC... not the guy who lived on Cloud City (well I am not directly referring to him, anyway). A few weeks ago we launched the latest batch of Lando - batch RS. In the near future, we’ll be launching another one: Batch PPP. What is with this batch thing and why is it not in some sort of order? We have now done Lando Batch A, VB, C, RS and coming out PPP... not to mention Donald Glover, which is a young Lando blend, and Billy Dee, an old unblended Lando (if you actually were around to try that one on our opening day in June 2018). I do not want to confuse people on this project, in fact I want you to know what the plan is if you have enjoyed drinking any of these beers.
Lando is a continuous project, not in the sense of a Solera, but in the way that I am using a base recipe to create all of these variations of the same beer. Each version of Lando uses the same base malts and an evolution of our house saison strain. I use old leaf hops but the variety has changed depending on availability. So far, that has included EKG, Fuggle, Cascade, Sorachi Ace, and Hallertau. Sour Saison refers to the fact that there is usually going to be an acidic component to the beer, but I should stress that I do not consider it a true sour beer (if you had Billy Dee you can totally disagree with me here). The main culture is a blend of Sacch, Brett and Lacto, but there are versions of Lando with Pedio, too. It is the beer that is brewed most often in the brewhouse as of yet, although I have a sneaking feeling that I am going to get really sick of brewing True Believer shortly.
Lando is currently sitting in Whiskey, Gin, and Wine barrels and has (so far) been primary fermented on peaches, mixed berries, and 3rd use wine must. It has been open fermented, barrel fermented, and stainless only fermented. I think you are getting the point. I wanted to write this blog at this point because the upcoming PPP release is a weird one. PPP = Peach Pit Punchdown. This version has two main components:
- The first brew was aged in a second use gin barrel before getting moved onto second use peaches.
- A second batch was primary fermented on fresh peaches for five days while doing punchdowns on the fruit and then moved into the same gin barrel used for component #1 on the day it was emptied.
- A third, much-smaller-but-still-important component was fresh Lando straight from stainless.
We will be working on a Lando page on our site to document and clearly(?) explain each batch and when it was released. This way, if someone actually cares, they can figure what the hell is going on with their bottle of Lando. We will also be changing the labels on our bottles, as you may have noticed with the Fargo release. I am no longer listing the full recipe on the labels, as I’ve realized that they are increasingly just not very accurate. If I put something in a bottle, it usually means that I blended a bunch of fun things into it, so……..
Confused yet?