Description
Lambic
Spon series is Three-year blend of 2014, 2015 and 2016 spontaneously fermented beer inspired by authentic Belgian lambic. Different batches are blended in different ratios
"Our SPON beers are inspired by authentic Belgian Lambic. Our goal is to follow the method of making Lambic, but to do so outside the traditional region with our own native ingredients and microflora, so as to create something unique to our own time, place, and people. It’s fairly common for Lambic to be unblended and bottled still. That was our inspiration for SPON Still — unblended, still Lambic.
We selected one barrel from our 2014 brewing season and bottled it unblended in 2016 after about two and a half years in the barrel. This beer is 2016 SPON Still. We also selected one barrel from our 2016 brewing season and bottled it unblended in 2017 after about one and a half years in the barrel. This beer is 2017 SPON Still. The year in the name refers to the year the beer was bottled, not brewed.
Aside from taking a long time, SPON Still is remarkably simple to make. In our opinion, it strips beer down to its most basic elements. We combine well water, malted barley and raw wheat in the mash, take the wort (unfermented beer) and boil it for four hours with aged hops from our barn, cool and inoculate it overnight in our coolship, put the beer into oak barrels, then leave it alone. After a few years go by, we take the beer out of the barrel and put it into bottles. It’s about as simple and hands off of a beer making process as it gets in our experience. The fact that beer can be spontaneously fermented without pitching yeast is still pretty amazing and magical to us, and presenting a really simple, elemental version of spontaneous fermentation is something we find exciting.
We think that beer drinkers will find that 2016 & 2017 SPON Still present pretty distinctly from one another. For starters, they are different fermentations fr...