Brews Report: Introducing Jester King Synthesis Analogous

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Introducing Jester King Synthesis Analogous

We’re excited to introduce Jester King Synthesis Analogous, a blend of farmhouse ales — one refermented with raspberries and one refermented with blackberries — aged in Spanish sherry barrels!
Our inspiration for Synthesis Analogous came from multiple sources. A few years ago, we began doing secondrefermentations of some of the fruits we use to make our beer. For instance, we conduct a second refermentation of the raspberries from Atrial Rubicite to make La Vie en Rose, and a second refermentation of cherries fromMontmorency vs. Balaton to make Detritivore. We noticed these fruits still had a lot of character left in them after the first refermentation, so we refermented them a second time. We also noticed his passage from Cantillon’s website, which piqued our interest and inspired us to experiment with second fruit refermentations:
“Two barrels of Kriek from the first extraction and two from the second are pumped into a huge barrel. (The second extraction is obtained by filling the barrel for a second time in order to extract as much from the fruits as possible).”
A second source of inspiration came from another famous Lambic brewery in Belgium — Brouwerij Drie Fonteinen. We had the good fortune to enjoy their Hommage, which is a special blend of Lambics refermented with raspberries and cherries. We were inspired by Drie Fonteinen to blend beers that had been refermented with different fruits.
As far as our process for Synthesis Analogous, in May of 2014 we took the blackberries from Nocturn Chrysalis Blend No. 2 and refermented them a second time with relatively young farmhouse ale. The resulting beer was pleasant and enjoyable, but the character from the aged hops in the young farmhouse ale needed more time to mellow. Rather than age the beer by itself, we decided to blend it with La Vie en Rose and mature it in Spanish sherry barrels. We felt the nutty, caramel character from the sherry barrels would add a nice roundness to the blend over time. The ratio of the blend was 2:1 in favor of the beer refermented with blackberries from Nocturn Chrysalis. It matured in sherry barrels for over a year prior to packaging this July.
Synthesis Analogous was brewed with Hill Country well water, barley, wheat, oats, and hops. It was fermented with our mixed culture of microorganisms consisting of brewers yeast and native yeast and bacteria harvested from the air and wildflowers around our brewery, and refermented with raspberries and blackberries. It was packaged in July of 2015 and is unfiltered, unpasteurized, and 100% naturally conditioned. At the time of bottling, it was 5.6% alcohol by volume, 1.003 specific gravity (0.75 degrees Plato), and 14 IBU.
Synthesis Analogous will be released when our tasting room opens at 4pm on Friday, September 18th. It is our first beer packaged in 750ml bottles similar in style to the 500ml bottles we use for our fruit refermentations. About 1,200 bottles will be available ($20/750ml bottle) with a limit of one per customer per day. We do not anticipate it being available beyond Jester King, aside from a few special events.