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
+1(720) 900-5551
topsecret@blackprojectbeer.com
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
     Show

pictoman

7.1
pictoman (9684) reviewed Thor from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Poured from bottle. Super murky, light orange amber with small white head. Plummy, hint of oak, okay.

Tried from Bottle on 13 Jan 2024 at 06:38

RennyDoig

7.1
RennyDoig (4553) reviewed Thor from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

Pours very murky brown. Tart acidity on the nose, a bit of funk. Strawberry and cherry. Nice tartness.

Tried on 13 Jan 2024 at 06:37

Oakes

7.4
Oakes (33493) reviewed Thor from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Opaque, dullish colour. Thin head. It has a bit of lactic, like some blackberry note, so the fruits are nice here. There's a bit of lactic acid, a touch of barrel.

Tried on 13 Jan 2024 at 06:33

mcberko

6.6
mcberko (47456) reviewed Thor from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

375mL bottle, pours an opaque murky reddish amber with a small off-white head. Aroma is murky, with dark currants, lots of earthiness, and plummy pith. Flavour is buggy, with earthy currants, pithy plums, and some oak. A bit jumbled and murky, but not particularly complex or refined. Decent.

Tried from Bottle on 13 Jan 2024 at 06:28

mcberko

6.4
mcberko (47456) reviewed Minuteman from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

750mL bottle, pours a hazy pale golden blonde with a small white head. Aroma has an interesting wild yeast character, some oak, and a touch of leather. Flavour has some phenols, lots of acidity, and some wild yeast. The phenols ultimately ruin this for me but you can tell there's something decent underneath.

Tried from Bottle on 16 Dec 2023 at 18:07

jgb9348

8.1
jgb9348 (11828) reviewed Hawk Screech from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

s: cranberries - oak - tart! a: super hazy orange body - not much head t: soured - spontaneous fermentation - citrus fruits p: mild malt - drying - complex o: similar to real lambics! - berry fruity - very complex & enjoyable! 16 ounce can - Argonaut Wine & Liqour: Denver, Colorado - 07-May-2021 - US$5,99 - Canned: 18-February-2021 - tagline: 'take it off' - sampled: 04-December-2023 as Beer #4 of my 2023 Advent Calendar

Tried from Can on 07 Dec 2023 at 21:25

Iznogud

8.1
Iznogud (14627) reviewed Roswell - Grudge from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

Bottle, 500 ml at Luppolo Station. Super intensive red fruit in aroma, sour cherries and raspberries. More fruit in flavour, soft texture, quite sour. Puckering. Murky red with off white head.

Tried from Bottle at Luppolo Station on 26 Oct 2023 at 17:46

explosivedog

7.1
explosivedog (14050) reviewed Thor from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle, shared by Chris M. Pours rusty brown. Plum, blackcurrant, vinegar, malt vinegar, toffee, lemon juice. Medium body. Good.

Tried from Bottle on 14 Sep 2023 at 02:47

Hermod

7.5
Hermod (17967) reviewed Thunderbolt from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

37,5cl bottle at tasting. Poured almost clear and golden in color. Apricots, dryness, funk, vinegar, grapes. Heavy and complex.

Tried from Bottle on 14 Aug 2023 at 09:58

kurtthomsen

8
kurtthomsen (3611) ticked Butcher from Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales 2 years ago

Pucker up!!!

Tried from Can on 28 Jul 2023 at 21:29

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