Mixed Fermentation

Inspired by Wallonian farmhouse brewing but rooted in Oregon terroir, Funky Fauna in Bend makes its Wild Saison beers from local ingredients, fermenting them in oak barrels with their wild-caught house culture. Here, cofounder and brewer Michael Frith shares tips on leaning local, developing your own mixed culture, package-conditioning, and more.

With local malt and a mixed fermentation culture foraged and harvested from native Australian flowers, Wildflower is focused on producing satisfying table beers with a true sense of place. Cofounder and brewer Topher Boehm explains their approach.

Brewing saisons with Brettanomyces offers an enticing opportunity to fully embrace Noble and Noble-esque hops, including newer varieties such as Adeena and Loral and later kettle additions to encourage biotransformation. Crooked Stave founder and brewmaster Chad Yakobson breaks down some possibilities.

Crooked Stave founder and brewmaster Chad Yakobson, one of the industry’s foremost experts on Brettanomyces, leads this in-depth course on brewing and fermenting funky, farmhouse-inspired beers.

Sapwood Cellars cofounder, brewer, and ”Mad Fermentationist” Michael Tonsmeire shares his expertise in all things fruit—sourcing, selecting, processing, blending, brewing, barrel-aging, and more.

Borrowing a page from winemakers, some brewers are pitching freshly picked fruit instead of slurry, taking advantage of the natural yeast and bacteria on their skins—a process that requires a leap of faith and the best, ripest fruit you can find.

Helmed by authors Michael Tonsmiere and Scott Janish, Sapwood Cellars’ shared focus on hop-forward beers and oak-aged mixed fermentations was a given. However, over the past four years, they’ve pushed into new territory and found spaces for even more creative exploration.

Matt Van Wyk cut his teeth on barrel-aged beers in Chicago in the ’00s, but with Alesong—in the bucolic winery-filled hill country of the southern Willamette Valley—he and cofounder Brian Coombs have built a brewery focused solely on barrel-aged beer.

Opening your fermentations to a wider array of yeasts and bacteria can add great complexity to your beers. It can also add complexity to your brewing process—but the challenge is both surmountable and rewarding.

“I could buy conventional grain and save some thousands of bucks per year, but then I don’t have anything to tell,” Jan Kemker says. “I don’t know if we need to call it terroir. It’s liquid storytelling, I think.”

In various places around the world, brewers are choosing to limit their choices and root their beer in its place. In the first part of a triptych, here’s a look at Norway’s Eik & Tid and its kveik-fermented, oak-aged, mixed-culture raw ales.

Three years after opening in Calgary, The Establishment has ridden its mixed-culture creations to the height of respect in Canada’s beer scene—winning medals, winning fans, and running out of room.

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

Jim Crooks, master blender at Firestone Walker Barrelworks, describes the process of tinkering with elegant beer recipes to get the desired complexity and character after months or years of maturing with yeast and bacteria.

In rural Flemish Brabant, Antidoot Wilde Fermenten’s house mixed culture includes various wild yeasts they have captured over the years. Here, Tom Jacobs offers tips for success in wrangling your own local strains.

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

At Seattle’s Floodland Brewing, Adam Paysse pursues a singular vision: to make beers that reflect his preferences and ideals. Turns out, a lot of other people dig them, too.

Time is a precious ingredient, even after packaging. Jester King founder Jeff Stuffings lays out some key considerations for bottling and conditioning your rustic, mixed-fermentation beers.

Is the future of Berliner weisse to be found in the past? These five mixed-fermentation versions offer a glimpse of what was and what remains possible.

The traditional white beer from Berlin has had many guises over the centuries, from simpler Lacto sours to fruit-packed smoothies, via enigmatic, mixed-fermentation constructions more closely aligned with its history.