Nothing Ever Begins
Floodland Brewing in Seattle, Washington, United States 🇺🇸
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Score
7.73
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Aged saison made in the rosé style from a coferment or red and white grapes and then refermented on organic plums and pluots. A modern classic.
This is a new beer for us, but given how this one turned out it's likely one that we will make again. It is a blend of saison refermented on both grapes and plum/pluots. The goal with this was to take from the macerated strawberry flavor we get from plum/pluot beers like Nothing/All and Collins Family and to reinforce it with a rosé style coferment of Chardonnay and red Rhône varietals that usually bring more strawberries. My hope with this was to add some more aromatic complexity as well as texture than we get from plums by themselves.
From that you can deduct that this is essentially a sister beer to The Constellatory Practice, and that is spot on. The great thing about this is that the grapes also have a lot of berry flavors, Syrah is often spicy/herbal and blueberry-ish with some funk, while Mourvèdre tends to have more plum and blackberry. These grapes came to us from Damon and his crew at French Creek, whose fruit we absolutely love, and we were really excited to get some red varietals from him again.
For the plums we used a blend that I thought would meld perfectly, some organic Elephant Heart plums from JC at Filaree. Sadly his old Elephant Heart tree is very old and starting to significantly decline in production, but the small amount of fruit it produces is still absolutely brilliant. We blended in some pale fleshed fortune pluots from Collins Family, as well as their most strawberry-ish pluot, Honey Punch. The latter also always brings it namesake honeyed creaminess, which is really strong on the aroma of this beer, presenting as almost like vanilla and caramel, plus some cotton candy. It moves on quickly to macerated strawberries, which continue along with red and blue berries on the palate and then the grape texture kicks in and the complexity of this beer really comes into focus.
Like Seekers, the blend of grapes and stone fruit just absolutely sings. It melds together so nicely and produces a beer whose aroma and flavors are cohesive but varied enough to be really compelling. It's fun to drink, but also keeps you on your toes. It always feels good when we can make something that is complex and also really lively and joyful, which I think is what we've accomplished here with this bottling. Instant classic if you ask me.
This is a new beer for us, but given how this one turned out it's likely one that we will make again. It is a blend of saison refermented on both grapes and plum/pluots. The goal with this was to take from the macerated strawberry flavor we get from plum/pluot beers like Nothing/All and Collins Family and to reinforce it with a rosé style coferment of Chardonnay and red Rhône varietals that usually bring more strawberries. My hope with this was to add some more aromatic complexity as well as texture than we get from plums by themselves.
From that you can deduct that this is essentially a sister beer to The Constellatory Practice, and that is spot on. The great thing about this is that the grapes also have a lot of berry flavors, Syrah is often spicy/herbal and blueberry-ish with some funk, while Mourvèdre tends to have more plum and blackberry. These grapes came to us from Damon and his crew at French Creek, whose fruit we absolutely love, and we were really excited to get some red varietals from him again.
For the plums we used a blend that I thought would meld perfectly, some organic Elephant Heart plums from JC at Filaree. Sadly his old Elephant Heart tree is very old and starting to significantly decline in production, but the small amount of fruit it produces is still absolutely brilliant. We blended in some pale fleshed fortune pluots from Collins Family, as well as their most strawberry-ish pluot, Honey Punch. The latter also always brings it namesake honeyed creaminess, which is really strong on the aroma of this beer, presenting as almost like vanilla and caramel, plus some cotton candy. It moves on quickly to macerated strawberries, which continue along with red and blue berries on the palate and then the grape texture kicks in and the complexity of this beer really comes into focus.
Like Seekers, the blend of grapes and stone fruit just absolutely sings. It melds together so nicely and produces a beer whose aroma and flavors are cohesive but varied enough to be really compelling. It's fun to drink, but also keeps you on your toes. It always feels good when we can make something that is complex and also really lively and joyful, which I think is what we've accomplished here with this bottling. Instant classic if you ask me.
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