Introducing 2016 SPON Mourvedre & Sangiovese / 2017 SPON Raspberry & Cherry

In honor of Cantillon Zwanze Day, we’re releasing two SPON beers at Jester King this weekend — 2016 SPON Mourvedre & Sangiovese and 2017 SPON Raspberry & Cherry!

2016 SPON Mourvedre & Sangiovese is our 100% spontaneously fermented beer, refermented with Mourvedre and Sangiovese grapes. We took three barrels of two year old SPON from 2014 and one barrel of three year old SPON from 2013 (about 1,600 liters), and added 500 pounds of Mourvedre grapes from the Texas High Plains and 500 pounds of Sangiovese grapes from Colorado. We allowed the beer to referment with the grapes to dryness, then naturally conditioned the beer in kegs and bottles resting on their side. 2016 SPON Mourvedre & Sangiovese was packaged on November 28, 2016. It’s 7.0 percent alcohol by volume, 8 IBU, 3.5 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 1.001 (0.25 Plato). 2016 is our first ever blend.

2017 SPON Raspberry & Cherry is our 100% spontaneously fermented beer, refermented with cherries and raspberries. We blended four SPON barrels from 2016 (about 1,500 liters) and added 800 pounds of Washington raspberries and 800 pounds of Michigan Balaton cherries. Like 2016 SPON Mourvedre & Sangiovese, we allowed the beer to referment with the fruit to dryness, then naturally conditioned the beer in kegs and bottles resting on their side. 2017 SPON Raspberry & Cherry was packaged on June 8th, 2017. It’s 5.6% alcohol by volume, 16 IBU, 3.2 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 1.005 (1.25 Plato). 2017 is our second ever blend.

Our SPON beers are inspired by authentic Belgian Lambic. We turbid mash a grist of 60% malted barley and 40% raw wheat, boil for four hours with aged hops from our barn, cool and inoculated the wort overnight in our coolship with naturally occurring yeast and bacteria, 100% spontaneously ferment the wort in oak barrels (no yeast or bacteria pitched) for one to three years, blend from multiple barrels often spanning across different vintages, and naturally condition the beer for months in bottles resting on their side. While we’re inspired by Lambic, our goal is to embrace our own surroundings, native ingredients, and microflora, so as to create something entirely unique to our own time, place, and people.

2016 SPON Mourvedre & Sangiovese and 2017 SPON Raspberry & Cherry will be released when our tasting opens at 4pm on Friday, September 22nd. They will be available by the glass and in bottles to go. We have about 3,200 bottles of 2016 SPON Mourvedre & Sangiovese and 2,800 of 2017 SPON Raspberry & Cherry available (375ml/$25). The bottle limit is three bottles of each beer (six bottles total) per customer per day. Aside from special events, it will only be available at our tasting room.