So I made a new friend at the Craft Brewer’s Conference this year: Chad Yakobson. Chad is studying a subject near and dear to our heart: the wild yeast Brettanomyces. He’s bright guy with a passion for beer related micro-biology. I’ve learned more about Brett from him than just about anyone around and his input has helped us make better Brett beer. In addition, Chad has been documenting his thesis on a great blog . Check out the killer photos of his plates. I am totally dorking out on that  stuff. Nice work Chad.I’m calling him ‘Dr. Brett’ from now on.

On to the beers. My first real encounter with Brett was about 5 years ago in Denver at the Great American Beer Festival. They crew from Flying Dog had been toying with 100% wild yeast fermentations of their Gonzo Porter. Now, let me just say right off the bat that in the world of commercial beer THIS IS CRAZY! Brettanomyces is still classified by most folk as a beer spoiler. If you tell a wine maker that you hang out with Brett they will tell you not to even think about visiting their winery. Anyway, my friend Casey Huges from Flying Fish drug me over to their booth and shoved the beer in my face. “Drink it!” he said. He was right on the money…the beer was fruity, complex beyond belief, and wonderful. It blew my mind. Long story short we started toying with small batches of secondary fermentations with brett (Cherry Dubbel), and then eventually 100% (Dr. Drie). I knew we were on the right track when the Victory crew started making Wild Devil, a 100% brett fermented IPA.

We currently have two entire racks of barrels just for ‘wild’ beer and are using 3 different strains of this yeast to produce a wide array of great beers that run through our ‘Sour Tower’ here at the brewery. Be sure and ask for a taster of some crazy beer the next time your in. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting and you may even dig it as much as I do.

Man do I love my job.