Beer of the Week! 07/04/23
Hermit Thrush Zingerbird
Regularly $17.99 / Now on Sale for $16.96
Wild Yeast Kettle Soured Pale Ale with Ginger
We love a good sour, which can be painful, ‘cause good sours can be hard to find. Thankfully, Hermit Thrush Brewery in Battleboro, VT loves good sours even more than we do.
Founded in 2014, Hermit Thrush makes mostly (if not exclusively) sour ales and hard seltzers. Being one of the breweries that is interested in expressing their local “terroir” in their beers, they source as much of their hops and fruit adjutants from local producers as they can. Their big claim to fame, though, (apart from their dedicated efforts towards sustainability) is that they have never used commercial yeast in their beers.
Stalking the surrounding woods, they’ve isolated wild yeast strains, which they then administer to their beers under controlled conditions. So, they use wild yeasts, but they don’t open ferment. Whereas most kettle soured beers use regular Saccharomyces yeast strains for fermentation, relying upon inoculations of lactobacillus bacteria to make their beers tart, Hermit Thrush ferments in the kettle with their own cultivated Brettanomyces yeasts. Thus, their beers have the kind of deep and complex sourness that you find in the Zingerbird.
The Zingerbird’s sourness is balanced and mellow, teasing you with a faint nuttiness. Hermit Thrush then enhances the Zingerbird with the ever so subtle addition of local ginger from Scott Farm Orchard in Dummerston, VT (just outside of Battleboro) and Full Plate Farm north of them in Putney, VT.
Outstanding.
Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause the phrase just has a nice ring to it.)
Proclamation Ale
Fade to White
Regularly $13.99 / Now on Sale for $12.96
Witbier Style Ale with Hibiscus
In 2014, Dave Witham founded Proclamation Ale Company as a nano brewery in West Kingston, in southern Rhode Island. Over the next few years, Proclamation grew little by little until they outgrew their space. So, in 2017 they uprooted and moved north to a larger facility in Warwick, RI, just south of Providence. They’re still there today, though, sadly, Witham is not.
After working hard to keep the brewery afloat during the lockdown phase of COVID, Witham was diagnosed with cancer in November of 2020. A month later, on Christmas Day, he succumbed to the disease. Immediately afterwards, his wife, Lori started a GoFundMe campaign to help out her and their surviving daughter and to help Proclamation stay afloat. Only days later, they had passed their goal with some contributions coming from other local breweries.
Today, Lori Witham is Proclamation’s president and creative director, making it one of the few women run breweries in the world. It boasts the largest oak aging and mixed fermentation program in the state, and specializes in blending beers in oak foeders as well as using locally grown fruits and herbs.
The Fade to White is a Belgian style witbier brewed with coriander, lemon peel, and hibiscus. If you think you know witbiers, you should understand that just the addition of the hibiscus makes this brew a different beast. Not only does it add a deep rose color to the beer (making the name, though clever, not representative), it also adds a touch of tartness. Witbiers already have enough of a delicate profile that that touch is enough to make the Fade to White stand out. It’s really interesting in that it remains, at its core, a witbier, while simultaneously being quite different. A few sips in and we started accepting that it is not what it is not. A few more sips, and we were really liking it for what it is.
Remember!
You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!