The Solitary Series is our opportunity to brew those beers that are too big, too bold, or too far out there to tap just any old time. These are the specialty beers, when we choose to brew something beautiful just because we want to brew it. This edition is a harvest ale: a celebration of providence, and a showcase for the malt and hops that form the basis for everything we do, transmuted through the magic of fermentation.

Our recipe is built on a massive platform of pilsner malt from Weyermann® Spezialmalze in Bamberg, Germany. We love this malt in The Leafcutter, but here we filled our mash tun to the limit in order to extract enough sugar to drive this one up to 9% ABV. It gives us a relatively light base malt character for such a strong beer, with baked bread and brown sugar notes from the extended boil.

The fermentation is where things get interesting. We use our signature Kölsch yeast in this one. Though often conflated with lager yeast, Kölsch yeast is technically an ale strain, and a versatile one at that. When thrown into different styles of wort, the esters it produces come off quite differently. In a light beer you can taste delicate white grape notes. In a hoppy beer it can taste more like fresh pineapple. Here we use it in a high gravity beer to develop flavors of grilled pineapple, subtle ripe banana and pear which, sitting alongside the sweetness of the ethanol, create an effect most similar to a Belgian ale.

We top it all off with fresh picked Crystal hops from Goschie Farms in Silverton, OR. Crystal is a variety developed in 1983 at the USDA breeding program in Corvallis as a domestic replacement for German-grown noble hops. We scheduled this batch so that we could be brewing it while Goschie farms was harvesting their hops, so we could get the most vibrant expression possible by using fresh hops. The beautiful floral aroma of these Crystal hops ties the beer together with a sense of elegance.

Overall this edition of the Solitary Series hits most like a Belgian golden ale, but in a way that showcases some of our favorite ingredients and our unique approach to brewing. You can find it on draft only while supplies last!