Availability: January 12, 2018 –  until gone.

Style: Belgian Table Beer**

Description: Gently Sour

Get funky! This beer was more than a year and multiple barrels in the making. It was made from the last runnings*** of two batches of 2017 Old Man Winter. We aged it for over a year in a wood barrel. The barrel was last used to produce our Christmas in July specialty beer and prior to that had been used by 888 Distillery for their Notch whiskey. The result is a table beer that is gently sour with tones of apple skin and light wood characteristics from the barrel. 

ABV: 1.9%        IBUs: 15

Malts: Canadian Pale, English Crystal, &  Roasted Barley

Hops: Saaz

Packaging (subject to availability): Tastings & pints only at the brewery

** What is a Belgian Table Beer?

Historically, these beers were brewed to an ABV of 0.5% – 2.0%. They were drunk by all members of the family – often with meals. Yes, even the children drank the beer! According to Bon Appetit, in Medieval times table beers were considered a better alternative than water. (Sorry kids, modern liquor laws apply. )

***How did we make Little Old Man?

To understand what the last runnings of a beer are it’s first necessary to know a little bit about how the brewing process works.

During the mashing process hot water and malt are mixed in a vessel called the mash tun to produce a sweet liquid, called “wort.” When starches have been converted into sugars by enzymes in the malt, the wort is transferred or “runoff” from the mash tun into the brew kettle. During the runoff, hot water is sprayed over the surface of the malt in the mash tun to rinse the sugars out of the malt. This is called sparging. The very sugar rich liquid that comes out of the mash tun at the beginning of the runoff is known as the first runnings. As the malt is slowly rinsed during sparging the wort becomes less rich with sugar. When the level of the transferred wort in the kettle is right about where we want it to be the remainder of the liquid coming out of the mash tun is known as the last runnings. Typically, almost all of the wort is transferred to the kettle for boiling. When we were making our 2017 batches of Old Man Winter, which is a beer that has a higher sugar (and eventually alcohol level) than some or our other beers when being brewed, we diverted some of the last runnings, that were slightly richer in sugar than usual, into our pilot system and brewed a very small batch of a Belgian Table Beer which was fermented in a barrel that was originally used to age 888 Notch Whiskey and subsequently used to age our Christmas In July special release and finally this beer – presenting Little Old Man.