Innovatie local brewer, Campervan Brewery, has spent over a year experimenting with different oak formats, wild yeasts, and bacteria to create two barrel aged sour beers in collaboration with the local tea merchant eteaket. The beers, Foeder Cherry Sour and Jasmine Brett Berliner, are an exciting extension of Campervan Brewery’s Lost in Leith range with the expert brewers adding a delicate twist to the two sours to help compliment and elevate the base beers.
Foeder Cherry Sour
This 7.5% ABV Sour Red ale was aged in one of our Fermentaria Foeders for 10 months, then re fermented with Scottish sweet cherries and Middle Eastern mahlab (ground cherry pits). The result is a deeply sour, red wine-like beer with cherries, plums and spice note. “The Foeder Cherry Sour is the second beer released from our foeders and is the first beer showcasing our house souring blend. There is a great depth of flavour, featuring a cherry[1]forward strain of brettanoymces, as well as a balance between the acidity and perceived sweetness from Scottish sweet cherries and baking spices.”
Jasmine Brett Berliner
The second is a 4.7% ABV Barrel Aged Berliner Weisse that was aged in Burgundian Chardonnay barrels for 10 months with a single strain of Brettanomyces. The beer was then cold steeped in Jasmine Chun Hao tea from eteaket. The result is a sour lemon beer with a bouquet of Jasmine, pome fruit and supporting funk. Avid tea drinker, Campervan’s brewer Patrick Smith, has always admired the work of eteaket and when the idea of aging a beer with tea came to his mind, they were an evidence for the project. “We’ve been fortunate to work closely with local tea experts eteaket, to produce a delicately balanced Jasmine-infused Berliner Weisse. Working with Sam Holburn has been a pleasure and with his help and knowledge we’ve produced a collaborative beer that we’re very proud of.”
About the collaboration, Erica Moore eteaket managing director and Sam Holburn, operation manager say: “We love a great cup of tea but we also love to experiment and innovate with our blends to create iced teas, tea cocktails & mocktails, lattes and many more tea inspired delights. We source and provide the highest quality award winning leaf tea and value local ingredients just as much, which is why we jumped at the chance to collaborate with Campervan Brewery. We felt we had a shared ethos for the value in handcrafted products and championing quality ingredients.
The collaboration process has been exciting learning all about Beer production and the testing of our different tea varieties to get us to the end result!”
Alongside those two sour beers, Campervan Brewery is also releasing the Vintage 2021 of their already classic Brett Pils. This second vintage of the Brett Pils is a blend of three barrels. This vintage is a little drier and features more oak than the June 2020 vintage.
“It’s great to be able to see how beers evolve over time as we refill barrels and let the cultures strengthen and exert different characteristics.”
The three beers will be launched on the 25th of June and can be found in their 375ml edition on the Campervan Brewery Web Store www.campervanbrewery.com/shop and in a selection of bottle shops.
A few 750ml editions of the 3 beers will also be available at Campervan’s venues, Lost in Leith bar & fermentaria and the Taproom Beer Garden in Leith.
