Winter beer and tasting room update

There’s no rest for the weary as we head into the holiday season. There are four beers pending release in our Winter lineup; and construction is kicking into high gear at our Oasis tasting room location. The wait is nearly over for fans of the Framboos Blonde Ale. Normally a late summer release for us, time and the rest of the world conspired to throw us off schedule. As of Thursday we’ll be bringing in a few hundred pounds of freshly picked local raspberries and mixing them with the beer-to-be.

With a few weeks of aging time under its belt, that fresh berry Framboos will be paired with a complex barrel-aged version that, in typical Uncommon fashion, we’re calling Framboos op Eiken, because the Dutch spelling for “on oak” is way more fun than the alternatives. We aged this beer in a mix of Pinot and Syrah barrels which previously held our High Water collaboration, the Flamenco Roja. Those barrels are inoculated with a refreshingly tart lactobacillus strain which dried out the Framboos op Eiken and brought the ABV up to 7.6%. Stunningly it lost none of the great fresh berry aroma along the way. We’ll be releasing it in cans right alongside the regular Framboos.

The other wholly new beer is our Bavarian Brown Lager. It’s a fun lager, hard to categorize. It began as a flavor study in a new malt, the double roast caramel, which has lovely toasted caramel notes that bring dried fruit and candy notes to an otherwise crisp-finishing lager.

The last of the new beers is a beast, technically marking a return for a long-absent part of our lineup. A few lucky people have tasted our American Special Bitter over the years. It’s another odd duck, a West Coast Strong Ale aged on fresh redwood branches. Hopped up like a double IPA, hot on the nose and malty in the body from the 14.5% alcohol, black as sin, and finishing smooth when the redwood tannins strike and dry off the palate. It’s aggressive and unapologetic. Enjoy and be careful.

The parapet walls went up across the eastern entrance to our Oasis tasting room earlier today. They mark the beginning of the end for structural work and the start of mechanicals. Plumbing and gas have been roughed into the kitchen. The new windows are installed in the southern wall, adding some fantastic natural light to the space. We’re still on track for opening early next year, but don’t have anything more than coming soon to offer as a date.

cheers!