Spontaneous

From de Garde Brewing in Tillamook, Oregon, head brewer Trevor Rogers shares this recipe for a spontaneously fermented beer flavored with foraged spruce tips—though the process is easily adapted for mixed-culture pitches or clean, single-strain fermentations.

The director of brewing operations for the progressive Wisconsin brewery discusses finding their flavor voice in a way that transcends style.

In Longmont, Colorado, this small passion project devoted solely to spontaneously fermented beers trusts in data and science to better understand and guide their fermentation, aging, and blending.

Floodland founder Adam Paysse shares his insights and perspective on collecting and nurturing mixed cultures for rustic, farmhouse-inspired beers.

Patience! Trevor Rogers, cofounder of de Garde Brewing in Tillamook, Oregon, muses on the unique expression and slow work of spontaneous fermentation.

These Jester King alumni searched for the perfect place to make the beer they envisioned, with wild yeast and ingredients sourced from within a few miles. Now, they guide their fermentations to produce beers that balance flavor and character.

Jean Van Roy, head brewer at Brasserie Cantillon in Brussels and heir to a 120-year-old lambic-brewing legacy, discusses his emotional approach and connection to spontaneously fermented beer—and his view on the new wave inspired by traditional methods.

On the industrial eastern edge of San Diego County, a group of self-described delinquents have embraced a bit of SoCal outlaw culture with Burning Beard Brewing. The secret sauce? Being authentic and embracing fun, while painstakingly improving everything.

Here is a homebrew-scale recipe for Burning Beard’s spontaneously fermented lambic-style beer. Including a turbid mash schedule and long boil, it’s inspired by the traditional methods followed by Belgian lambic brewers.

Like the punk-rock pioneers who inspire them, Burning Beard rejects standard operating procedure and embraces a unique set of values that have helped to set them apart from the crowded San Diego beer scene.

Fox Farm makes IPAs, yes, but an equally important part of their program is exploring brewing traditions—from tightly constructed lagers to thoughtfully executed English-style ales, Belgian-style farmhouse ales, and more.

Levi Funk follows two seemingly contradictory brewing philosophies—the hardcore traditionalism of Funk Factory Guezeria, and the boundary-pushing experimentalism of Untitled Art.

Informed by the Belgian tradition but rooted in their own places, here are five beers brewed and blended in the manner of lambic and gueuze.

Try to brew it if you want—many have tried—but few beers belong to their own place more than traditional Belgian gueuze.

Destihl Brewery started as a small-town brewpub, but it was sour beer that put them on the map in the late 2000’s. In this episode, Founder Matt Potts discusses how they’ve developed these different beers, from traditional to kettle sours.

The head brewer and cofounder of Virginia’s The Veil Brewing Co. is known for both his hyperfocus on spontaneous lambic-style brewing and for pushing the boundaries of beer with a commitment to experimentation, challenge, and learning.

Deploying coolships, open fermentors, turbid mashes, and decoctions, and specializing in lagers and spontaneous fermentation, the brewers at Dovetail in Chicago are among the new guard for the old ways.

Terroir and character matter for Chris Betts, founder of Michigan’s Transient Artisan Ales. Here, he talks about how they build that character into everything from relatively dry hazy IPAs (using Michigan hops) to their spontaneously fermented beer.

Marti discusses how their approach to craft lagers has evolved, how they've borrowed innovative processes from the IPA world for their traditional lagers, and how they've painstakingly built a sour program based on mixed-culture Berliner weisse.

Beachwood has built a world-class sour, wild, and spontaneous beer program by controlling environmental factors and carefully selecting for desired character in their prevailing house culture.