2017 RU55 Barrel Aged Sour Red Ale

This Friday, May 19th at 4pm, we’re releasing our 2017 blend of RU55 Barrel Aged Sour Red Ale! RU55 is inspired by the barrel aged sour red ales of Flanders, and is one of our favorite beers to make. We ferment it in neutral oak barrels for 8 to 14 months with our mixed culture prior to blending.

Most of our grain bills are pretty simple. For instance, we typically brew with pale two-row malt, malted wheat, and a small percentage of flaked or raw grains. RU55 has always been one of the exceptions to this approach. We brew it with three different base malts (Pilsner, Two Row, Munich) and four different caramel malts (C-60, C-120, Carared, and Melanoidin).

2017 RU55 is 6.2% alcohol by volume, 16 IBU, 3.4 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 1.004 (1.0 degrees Plato). As always, RU55 is dedicated to our friend and brewer Russ Beattie, who helped us brew our very first batches at Jester King.

This Friday, 2017 RU55 will be available by the glass and in bottles to go at our tasting room. We have about 7,000 bottles available (750ml/$18). There’s no bottle limit, and we anticipate that some of 2017 RU55 will see distribution beyond Jester King.