About
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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7.6/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 6 Overall 7.5
Can at lost in leith. Pours yellow, nose is apricot, passionfruit, funk, taste is similar, juicy, fruity.
Tried from Can on 22 Mar 2020 at 14:49

7.1/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 7.5
Can at lost in leith. Pours pinkish red, nose is toffee, cranberry, funk, taste is juicy berries, funky, dry. --- Beer merged from original tick of SHADOW FACTORY: Cranberry - Boysenberry on 21 Apr 2020 at 13:54 - Score: 7
Tried from Can on 22 Mar 2020 at 14:49

6.9/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 7.5
Can at lost in leith. Pours golden, nose is funky, citrusy, spice, taste is tart, zesty, oak
Tried from Can on 22 Mar 2020 at 14:49

7.5/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 6 Overall 8
She’s a real tart one, puckering, but well balanced with the sweetness, peachy, good. Freshcraft denver
Tried on 05 Mar 2020 at 02:11

7/10
92319, My stomach lining might lose against this one. Real acidic and tart. Nice amount of passion fruit in the nose and front, along with the apricot, but the rest is ulcer city.
Tried from Can on 01 Mar 2020 at 15:09

7.4/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 6 Overall 8.5
Can at share: pours lightly hazy with a white head. Aroma is peach and apricot and passionfruit. Taste is sour, super fruity, passionfruit. Good.
Tried from Can on 01 Mar 2020 at 01:39

6.4/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 5 Flavor 8 Texture 6 Overall 6.5
Can, at bottle share, thanks to me. Pours pale yellow. Bit of a microwave egg thing. Passionfruit, apricot, mango, lemon, sharp lemon. Medium body. Fine.
Tried from Can on 01 Mar 2020 at 01:32

8.5/10
Excellent, bright apricot acetic tartness, great blend. Smooth
Tried from Bottle on 25 Feb 2020 at 20:12

7/10
Wheaty and orangey. Smooth lightness with still nice tart orange finish
Tried from Can on 21 Feb 2020 at 23:21

8/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 10 Overall 8
750ml bottle from Toby. Hazy straw color, filmy head. Aroma is fruity, stone fruit. Taste adds tartness,
Tried from Bottle on 03 Feb 2020 at 00:36