Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales

Microbrewery in Denver, Colorado, United States 🇺🇸
Associated Venue: Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales - Out of business

Established in 2014

Out of business

Contact
1290 S Broadway A51, Denver, CO, 80210, United States
Description
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales is the passion project of James Howat, owner, brewer, and blender; of what was formerly Former Future Brewing Company. The brewery began production in January 2014 and won two bronze medals and one silver medal for their coolship ales (Category: Experimental, Subcategory: Wild Ales) at The Great American Beer Festival in 2014, 2015, and 2017. In 2016, Black Project expanded production with a small addition to the property which allowed for the expansion of their barrel program. This allowed the brewery to evolve from Former Future Brewing Company to only serving Black Project beers.

Every Black Project beer is fermented with microbes captured from the local environment via a coolship or foraged from nature. We believe this creates a beer that is unrivaled in complexity. Our beers are intended to have a sense of place, or terroir. No matter how hard one tried to, our beer cannot be replicated outside of our brewery. In fact, our microbe cultures are purposefully allowed to evolve from batch to batch, creating variations and interesting twists from different releases of the same beer.

We are meticulous about designing recipes and processes that will allow nature to take over and create beers unrivaled in their beauty and complexity. Through experimentation and research, we are continuously developing new and different techniques for use with wild and spontaneous fermentation.

We are not and do not have any intention of being a Lambic brewery. We use science and experimentation to find which processes and ingredients we want and often use that in parallel to traditional Lambic producers, however, we maintain no strict adherence to tradition for tradition's sake. While we do craft several of our beers with strict adherence to traditional Belgian processes, these beers are not and should not be called "Lambic" and "Gueuze," as we are outside of the Pajottenland region of Belgium. Instead they themselves are a form of experimentation with local terroir. Spontaneous fermentation is merely a starting point and core of many of our beers, from there our research and development extends much beyond the scope of the great Belgian brewers and blenders.

We hope you enjoy our beers

James Howat
Founder | Brewer | Blender

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7.5
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 7

Clear bright orange, medium off white head, decent lacing. Aroma is hoppy, citrus, lime, dust, bugs, oak tannin. Flavor is light tart, light funk, bright hops, subdued flemish character. Merlin body

Tried on 05 Feb 2021 at 02:59


7.6
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle. Pours clear golden, small white head, good residual. Aroma is dust, lemon, lime, white grape, oak, grass. Flavor is light plus tart, light funk, bright citrus, dust, hint of basement. Light body.

Tried from Bottle on 02 Feb 2021 at 02:01


6.6
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5

Murky reddish brown pour with no head. Tart dark berries, vinegar, lactic acid, and probably some other stuff that I can't really detect due to the acidic harshness. It's beers like this one that make me want to give up trying US sours altogether.

Tried from Can on 30 Jan 2021 at 19:29


7.8
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Hazy golden pour with a thin and lively white head. Notes of unripe peaches, lemons, vinegar, lactic acid, gooseberries. Very interesting flavours, but, like most US-style sours, goes a bit overboard with the sourness. It does get better once it warms up, though.

Tried from Can on 30 Jan 2021 at 15:37



6

Definitely beer/wine hybrid but strayed too close to wine, it's basically a bottle of wine with carb, nose is riesling, front is riesling, booze is riesling. Should have blended a little more beer and a little less riesling juice. Certainly extreme+chunks

Tried from Bottle on 14 Jan 2021 at 18:46


7.5
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

On tap at MBCC Blue Session. Pours a dark ruby with medium pink head that lasts. The aroma is earth, currant, funk, berry, oak. Medium body, jammy, blackberry, currant, cherry, nice tartness, light funk, very good.

Tried from Draft on 31 Dec 2020 at 22:14


7.1
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

On tap at MBCC Blue Session. Pours a hazy gold with small white head. The aroma is peach, wheat, sea salt, earth. Slick body, lemon zest, peach, salty, nice tartness, very good.

Tried from Draft on 30 Dec 2020 at 07:26


7.4
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Can. Pours purple red. Blueberry, tart, little funk, berry, orange, drying finish. Medium body. Decent.

Tried from Can on 25 Dec 2020 at 03:15


7.8
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Hazy golden color with a medium foamy white head that recedes gradually to a film. Partial rings of lace. Aroma of herbal hops, citrus and malt. Medium body with a dank hoppy character with notes of mildly funky citrus and bready malt. The finish is tart and funky citrus and hops. Pretty good all around.

Tried on 24 Dec 2020 at 21:21