One of the highlights to the annual SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience is that every guest leaves with a parting gift — a collaboration beer brewed specifically for the event. The 2018 collaboration beer Brett de Vinum is a partnership between Virginia's Port City Brewing Company and Oregon's Crux Fermentation Project. Port City's Founder Bill Butcher explained how two breweries from opposite ends of the country partnered in creating this Barrel Aged Imperial Wit (8.0% ABV). The two breweries have admired each other's beers over the years and over multiple calls and meetings discussed recipes, styles, and each of their strengths. One of Port City's strengths is brewing with raw wheat (Optimal Wit) and one of Crux Fermentation's strengths is barrel aging and mixed fermentation.According to Bill, "They wanted to learn more about brewing with wheat, which is not such a common style in the Pacific Northwest, and we wanted to learn more about mixed fermentation and barrel aging. As discussions progressed, we settled on a Barrel Aged Imperial Sour Wit".
As they refined the recipe they thought it would be interesting utilize wine grapes in order to boost the sugar content and achieve a stronger Imperial alcohol level. Again from Bill, "The National Sales Manager for Crux is a colleague of mine from Robert Mondavi, so we thought it appropriate to use wine grapes. Viognier is a grape that grows well in Virginia and in Oregon, so it naturally made sense to use Viognier". Since Pinot Noir is Oregon's signature grape "healthy" doses of that grape were also used. And since production occurred at Crux's facility in Bend, they sourced Oregon grapes. After fermentation, the beer was “banished” into red wine barrels with Crux’s house strains of Brettanomyces.
The result is a delicious beer combining the freshness and citrus yeastiness of the Optimal Wit with an enhanced creamy texture with just hints of sourness. Fortunately the breweries closed the bottles with a cork so that it can be enjoyed over multiple evenings. Cheers to collaborations and SAVOR.
