Process: Golden ale spontaneously fermented and aged for 8 months in neutral french oak barrels. The beer was moved out of barrel and onto organic Driscoll Maravilla raspberries (from Herefordshire) in tank. We punched the fruit cap down daily once refermentation had commenced. The beer was on fruit for 2 months before being finished in freshly emptied red and white port barrels for 4 months. It was blended back with further components before packaging.
Conditioning: Packaged with a small amount of priming sugar for natural carbonation in the bottle. We do not add yeast at this point, or at any point in the process. Bottles laid to rest on side and conditioned until release.
Notes: A wonderful, bright pinky red in colour. Apart from the obvious explosion of raspberry on the nose, further notes of strawberry, sweet cherry and violet are present. This continues on the palate with a touch of oak and a lovely rounded bitterness. There is a fullness in body from the port barrels, with refreshing acidity and positive carbonation.
Ingredients: Malted barley (pilsner), malted wheat, raw wheat, aged hops (whole leaf fuggles, whole leaf strisselspalt, & whole leaf saaz), driscoll maravilla raspberries, water.
Crossover Blendery are a small blendery operation located in Hertfordshire, UK. Their focus is on producing 100% spontaneously fermented beers aged in traditional vessels such as oak barrels. Plus they aim to source their ingredients as close to the Blendery as possible.