Barrel-aged farmhouse ale refermented with Texas Hill Country Blanc du Bois grapes

Blanc du Bois grapes are pretty special to us. For starters, they taste wonderful and produce beautiful flavors when fermented. Beyond that, they’re grown in the Hill Country and played an important role in Texas wine. Blanc du Bois was bred to be be resistant to Pierce’s Disease, a bacterial disease that often affects grapevines in the south/southeast region of the United States.

For 2017 Bière de Blanc du Bois, we refermented 1,100 pounds of Blanc du Bois grapes from Torre di Pietra Vineyards in Fredericksburg, Texas with about twelve oak barrels (~2,700 liters) of Jester King Das Überkind. The base beer was blended from barrel stock ranging from about eight to fourteen months old. After refermentation, the blend was packaged on September 7th, 2017 and naturally conditioned through refermentation in the serving vessel. At the time of packaging, the blend was 6.9 percent alcohol by volume, 10 IBU, 3.5 pH, and 0.999 specific gravity (-0.25 Plato). This is our fourth blend of Bière de Blanc du Bois.