Golden Eagle

Origin Story

*This is the second time we have attempted to re-ferment a beer in wooden barrels using a different yeast strain, like Brettanomyces. The first time we ever dabbled with furthering the fermentaion process in this fashion was with our one and only sour ale, the Sourpuss, in which we took a finished Magician and placed it in whiskey barrels with Brettanomyces, as well as placing some in wooden barrels that had lactic bacteria in it. The base beer for the Golden Eagle is a Belgian style Blonde Ale, which are also referred to as "golden ale". Belgian Golden Ales (or Blonde Ales) are pretty straight forward beers, comparable to the German Kolsch, but brewed with a Belgian yeast strain that imparts it's own set of signature esters and flavors. Overall, these beers tend to be crisp and dry, with a notable malt sweetness closer to bread or toast, as opposed to caramel or toffee. The color tends to be a bright gold and hop bitterness is on the lower side. These ales are designed to be easy drinking and approachable, yet require some skill to brew, because flaws become so much easier to detect due to their simple nature. Golden Ales are typically best served fresh, but a unique new trend of aging these beers in wine barrels, along with some Brettanomyces yeast has emerged recently. This is where our "not so simple" Golden Ale begins to branch off from the pack. As mentioned earlier, we used a Belgian yeast strain to brew this beer, but we also added some blonde candy sugar to it. Obviously, this extra ingredient addition changed the overall flavor profile, adding a heightened sweetness untypical of a straight forward Golden Ale, but it also significantly raised the ABV far beyond the usual 4.5%-5.5% often seen with this style. We then moved the beer after much of the primary fermentation had taken place, and experimented with the wine barrel Brettanomyces re-fermentation/aging techniques*, to give our Belgian Golden Ale an even more unique "Short's" twist. As for the wine barrels, we were fortunate enough to obtain some Cabernet Franc/Merlot and Blaufrankish oak barrels from local wine maker, Left Foot Charlie.