Come What Mayhaw

In March 2015, Harvey and Caleb brewed a base golden sour. It fermented with a low-ester yeast in our original cellar, then we moved it to Pinot Nior barrels for nine months, where we introduced the beer to a mix of yeast and bacteria that Caleb brought down from Upland. After nine months, our new “dirty” cellar was ready, so we moved the beer to our 30 barrel oak foeder. (Pronounced FOOD-er, is a large oak barrel used to age beer. Some are previously used to age wine, while others are newly fabricated.)

To that foeder, we added 1200 pounds of mayhaws we sourced from a variety of local mayhaw farmers in 2015. (Huge “THANK YOU” to all of the Great Raft employees and significant others who kept mayhaws stored in their home freezers for over six months. We couldn’t have done this without you!) After three months of aging on mayhaws, our collaboration is complete. We bottle conditioned for a few weeks and are finally ready to release the product. The result is a fruit forward sourness, accented by balanced acidity from various bacteria and expressive oaky tannins.