We are pleased to introduce Jester King Bière de Syrah — a barrel-aged sour beer refermented with Syrah grapes. Bière de Syrah consists of a blend of beer fermented in oak barrels for nine to twelve months with our mixed culture of brewers yeast and native yeast and bacteria harvested from the air and wildflowers around our brewery. The blend was then refermented with Syrah grapes for about two weeks, transferred off of the fruit, then aged for an additional nine months in oak barrels. After packaging, the beer naturally conditioned for an additional two months prior to release. Altogether, Bière de Syrah is roughly two years old.

Bière de Syrah spent considerably more time aging than most of our other fruited sour beers. This is due to the fact that our Barrel Program Head Adrienne Ballou likes the practice of racking (transferring) beer refermented with wine grapes back into oak barrels for further maturation. Adrienne came to Jester King from the wine world and brought several winemaking techniques with her. According to Adrienne, maturation in oak barrels following fruit refermentation allows the beer to take on more complex characteristics than just bright fruit character and acidity.