Beer #191 - W/C 22 October 2018
BREWERY // 8 Wired began on Christmas day when Søren Eriksen's future wife, Monique, gave him the gift of a Coopers malt extract brew kit. After a few successful home-brews, Søren got thinking about a career in brewing. He'd recently finished a degree but a career in biochemistry didn't sound that appealing so he was pretty happy to land a job at Renaissance. While working in the brewery, he picked up valuable experience and also started contract brewing at various breweries under the label 8 Wired. After a few years, he created a brewery of his own in beautiful Warkwork. A wide range of traditional and innovative styles are being constantly released by 8 Wired and their barrel ageing programme must be one of the largest in our hemisphere with 7 huge foedres and hundreds of wooden barrels. Never ones to shy away from a challenge, the 8 Wired team are currently working to create a delicious alcohol free beer. Their first attempt, Ghost Chips, ended up at 1% abv. and they are brewing another batch this week with the aim of finishing below 0.5%.
BEER // 8 Wired brewed Stone Free as a limited keg-only release for GABS 2018 and we loved it. When Søren mentioned they were doing another batch and bottling a portion for a Canadian Beer Advent Calendar (seriously) we asked if an allocation of bottles could be reserved especially for you lucky Jerks. Kettle Souring is a fast process of creating sour beers which has been used since at least the 14th Century in styles such as Berliner Weisse and has recently seen a huge spike in popularity. Lactobacillus bacteria (which can be found in yoghurt) is added to the cooled wort (unfermented beer) for a day or two to bring the ph level to where the brewer wants it. Then the wort is boiled (killing the bacteria) and yeast added to ferment into beer. Stone Free was inspired by Hendrix, brewed with Riwaka hops and and fermented on a lot of apricots. The result is a very drinkable, light and refreshingly fruity beer. It isn't overwhelmingly sour - the fruit, hops and sourness compliment one another in a lovely example of a balanced sour that pairs well with good weather and great music.
BREWERY // 8 Wired
BEER // Stone Free
STYLE // Hoppy Sour Apricot Ale
ORIGIN // Warkworth
ABV // 4.5%
TEMPERATURE // Cool - 8C
FOOD MATCH // Kung Pal Chicken. Roast Pork. Brie. New York Cheesecake.
GLASS // Tulip