Introducing 2016 Estival Dichotomous

We’re pleased to introduce 2016 Estival Dichotomous. For this year’s Estival Dichotomous, we added grapefruit and tangelo zest to some mature, barrel aged sour beer. We then blended the barrel aged sour beer with citrus zest with young fresh beer fermented in stainless steel. Finally, we refermented the blend of old and young beer with a small amount of marion blackberries.

As followers of Jester King know, we’re fond of the technique of bière de coupage, which historically often involved blending young beer with old, sour beer. We like this technique because of the flavor profile of the blend, and because of the microbial impact the old beer has on the young. For the fruit addition, we used a relatively small ratio of fruit to beer, about half a pound of marion blackberries per gallon.

At the time of packaging, Estival Dichotomous was 5.1% alcohol by volume, 3.9 pH, 1.000 specific gravity (0 degrees Plato), and 25 IBU. It was packaged in bottles, kegs, and casks on September, 7th 2016 and has been naturally conditioning over the last two months.

2016 Estival Dichotomous will be released at Jester King on Friday, November 4th, 2016 when our tasting room opens at 4pm. It will be available by the glass, as well as at bottles to go. We have about 3,000 bottles available (750ml/$14). There is no bottle limit. At this point, besides for special events, we do not foresee 2016 Estival Dichotomous being available outside of our tasting room.