A foeder (pronounced FOOD-er) is essentially a giant wooden barrel. Ours came from a high-end winery in California and holds 1,860 gallons of beer. Wineries retire foeders for a variety of reasons, but once they’ve aged wine for several years, they serve as awesome hosts for a variety of souring microbes and/or wild yeast strains.
The base beer for Foeder Project #2 is best categorized as a Flanders-style Red. Following primary fermentation with our house Belgian yeast strain, the beer was transferred into the foeder where lactobacillus brevis and brettanomyces had already taken up residence. No additional microbes or yeast strains were pitched to begin secondary fermentation. Over the course of several months, the beer evolved and developed beautiful flavors of tart peach/apricot and notes of under ripe berries and rhubarb with a borderline bracing acidity resulting in a refreshing, zippy finish.
Beer Information:
ABV – 7%
IBUs – 6.3
pH – 3.16
TA – 1.59% (total acidity expressed as % lactic acid)
– Jeremy Danner, Ambassador Brewer