This morning I have a new collaboration beer coming from Firestone Walker Barrelworks in Buellton, CA. This is Big Mood and it will be a collaboration between Tim Clifford and Adair Paterno of Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola, CA. The beer will be an American wild ale fermented with white wine grapes and apricots (40% seminal apricot wild ale West Ashley from Sante Adairius and 60% 2017 vintage white grape ale from Barrelworks).. The beer will roll in at 8.1%-AbV and it will be packaged in 375 ml bottles in a limited run of 519 cases. Stay tuned here for full release details.
This 28 Aug 2020 update from Firestone Walker:
INTRODUCING BIG MOOD, IN COLLAB WITH SANTE ADAIRIUS RUSTIC ALES
We're excited to release Big Mood, the newest wild child from Barrelworks in collaboration with Sante Adairius Rustic Ales. Big Mood is co-fermented with Hollister, California apricots and Santa Ynez Valley, California white wine grapes.
Big Mood represents an effort to combine and celebrate two mutual specialties—the wine-beer hybrids of Barrelworks; and the apricot-infused expertise of Sante Adairius, which is most notably evident in their popular West Ashley barrel-aged Saison.
“For me, its not just a collaboration, but a lifelong friendship – what every collaboration you do should be - because it’s the people you share intimacy with. Whether it be your secrets, your recipes, your ‘sour yeast magic’, it’s an intimate knowledge. And it just helps build the enigma of both of our breweries in the future. It takes a lot of heart. It’s kind of a mystical way of saying how I feel about good beer: it’s a Big Mood.” - Jim Crooks, Barrelworks Master Blender
Individual 375ml bottles of Big Mood are now available on our webstore for $8.99, shipping from our brewery to California residents only. Available in our three California brew stores starting Thursday, Sept. 3 and available on draft nationally in the coming weeks, limited quantity. Use the beer finder to locate Big Mood closest to you.
Wild Ale Crafted with Apricots & Wine Grapes in Collaboration
with Sante Adairius Rustic Ales
Buellton, CA : Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks today released “Big Mood”—a new wild child crafted with Blenheim apricots and white wine grapes in collaboration with Sante Adairius Rustic Ales.
Big Mood is now available in draft format in all Firestone Walker markets. Bottles are also available at all Firestone Walker locations and online at FirestoneBeer.com.
Big Mood was driven by Barrelworks Master Blender Jim Crooks’ admiration for Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, whose co-founders Adair Paterno and Tim Clifford have created one of the nation’s most notable wild beer programs at their brewery in Capitola, California.
The feeling was clearly mutual, as Sante Adairius lent their renowned house yeast culture to the project. “This is the first time we’ve ever given it out,” Clifford said. “It was a sign of respect from our brewery to Firestone Walker.”
Crooks used the Sante Adairius yeast to ferment 2,000 pounds of Blenheim variety apricots sourced from Sante Adairius’ supplier in Hollister, California—enough to fill 50 oak barrels of beer, which underwent six months of aging. This apricot beer was then blended with a special selection of barrel-aged wine hybrid lots dating back to the 2017 vintage, all made with local Santa Barbara County white wine grapes.
The result is Big Mood, a distinctive wild ale that blazes its own trail with luscious stone fruit flavors and elegant vinous maturity.
“The wine hybrid side of this beer is really dry and refined in flavor,” Crooks said. “Then you add that fleshy, juicy, ripe part of the apricot and you get this amazing balance. It’s reminiscent of an apricot mimosa—it’s one of the most delicious and flamboyant beers we’ve ever made.”
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Founded by brothers-in-law Adam Firestone and David Walker in 1996, Firestone Walker Brewing Company is a California beer company with three innovative brewing facilities. Firestone Walker’s main brewery in Paso Robles produces a diverse portfolio ranging from iconic pale ales to vintage barrel-aged beers. The Barrelworks facility in Buellton makes eccentric wild ales, while the Propagator pilot brewhouse in Venice specializes in R&D beers and limited local offerings. Firestone Walker is also the brewery behind 805, one of the nation’s fastest-growing beers. Firestone Walker was recently named “Best American Brewery of the Decade” by Paste Magazine.
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