THIS BEER HAS LITTLE, TO NO CARBONATION. WHY IS THAT?

When you crack open this bottle, you’ll find you probably won’t hear the typical satisfying “pffft” out the top. No, opening this beer is tranquil and unceremonious. When you pour it, you won’t see a big frothy head, if any at all. But don’t let it fool you: the liquid inside is as delicious as they come (in our humble opinion, of course). And for big barrel-aged stouts, low carb is okay. But why did this happen?

Well, back in the fall of 2019, we decided that for our upcoming bottled releases, we wanted to switch to “bottle conditioning” as our Modus Operandi; this centuries-old method of natural carbonation involves adding a bit of sugar to the beer prior to bottling. In doing so, our yeast ferments the remaining sugars, within the package, and without escape. This small bit of fermentation creates CO2, adding the bubbles you may know and love, and also allows the packaged beer a better chance of graceful aging, with living yeast able to scrub oxygen (the primary detriment to the longevity of beer) through time in your cellar. Bottle conditioning is a process we’ve performed with numerous other styles, and have completed several times since. In fact, we would call this a fairly standard and repeatable process that we will continue to embrace.

However, these stouts differ from our previous forays into bottle refermentation in one particular way: they have a ton of alcohol! Ranging from 13.9%-15.2% ABV, these are some boozy, heart-warming, contemplative, and cozy sipping beers my friends. The yeast to which we handed this heavy fermentation has a pretty high alcohol tolerance… to a point. Unfortunately, in this case, when we delivered this decadent meal to our microscopic microbial friends, they decided to go on a metaphorical diet... Or in more scientific terms, our yeast faced osmotic stress from the residual sugar in our beer, in conjunction with an inhospitable, highly alcoholic and low pH environment. So after a month or two went by, we checked in to see how carbonation was coming, and we got nothing. Nothing at all. What to do?

We decided the best thing was to wait. And wait. And wait some more. Here we are, over a year later, and as expected they are still pretty much flat. But as the beers made their rounds through our sensory program, the feedback from the tasters was unanimous: these are delicious! Decadent, rich, boozy…. More people should try this!

And so here you are, you’re trying it! And we’re excited for you. This beer has taken a long, winding path before landing in your hands, and we can’t wait to see what you think. While not what we initially set out for, an imperial stout like the one you are drinking is the closest representation of what we taste in our barrels, and a liquid that very much excites us as brewers and drinkers, alike!