Introducing De Garde Brewing / Sante Adairius Rustic Ales / Jester King Brewery Elements of Composition

We’re pleased to introduce Elements of Composition, a blend of beer and friendship spanning the course of years. In February 2016, brewers from De Garde Brewing, Jester King Brewery, and Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in met in Tillamook, Oregon to blend beer from each of their respective breweries. Three year old, 100% spontaneously fermented beer from De Garde was blended with two year old, 100% spontaneously fermented beer from Jester King, and mature, foudre aged saison from Sante Adairius. The result is a beer distinct from, but not greater than, the sum of its parts.

Elements of Composition marks the first collaborative blending project for De Garde, Jester King, and Sante Adairius. Our focus was on how the aromas and flavors of our respective beers would meld together and change over time. A lot of time did indeed go into the making of this beer! We’re fond of saying that we do the aging of our beer for you, and this is a great example. The oldest component of the blend came from De Garde and was brewed in 2013. The Jester King component of the blend was brewed in 2014, and the Sante Adairius component was brewed in 2015. The blend then aged and matured for another ten months in bottles prior to release.

It’s important to note that we blended with an eye towards where the beer would go with time, because it’s alive! The beers from De Garde and Jester King were 100% spontaneously fermented with airborne yeast and bacteria collected overnight in their coolships, and the beer from Sante Adairius contains the wonderful menagerie of microbes found within the walls of their oak foudres. We knew this unfiltered, unpasteurized blend would change with time, so we used our palates and experience to try to anticipate how the beer would develop over the months and years ahead.

The artwork for Elements of Composition was created by Josh Cockrell of Jester King. Here’s Josh’s description of the art:

“I wanted to use De Garde’s art deco visual aesthetic as a base since it was the physical base for our blending and collaboration. So, the shape, text and line form is all inspired by De Garde’s labels. For the central image, I pulled from a textile pattern style that was popular during the same era as art deco. The Disty Floral pattern, as it is called, is a very small scale pattern with a random appearance. Though they are really quite simple, the visual effect they create is beautifully dense. I thought it could be a lovely way to express the complex composition of our blend while retaining simple elements that pay homage to the individual components. I started by creating three pattern “fields” to represent each brewery. The California Poppy for Sainte Adairius, Oregon Grape Flowers for De Garde, and the Texas Bluebonnet for Jester King. Each circular field represents terroir and culture, and as they begin to overlap each other they create an even more vibrant and exciting pattern that, while random, still expresses an intentional balance.”

Elements of Composition will be released at De Garde Brewing in Tillamook, Oregon on Friday, December 16th from 3pm to 7pm! It will only be available in bottles to go (750ml/$28). Approximately, 500 bottles are available with a limit of one per customer. Adair Paterno of Sante Adairius, and Jeff Stuffings and Josh Cockrell of Jester King, will join Linsey and Trevor Rogers at De Garde for the release. Adair and Jeff sent some special beers from Sante Adairius and Jester King to pour at it! De Garde has also put together a beautiful food menu for the event (posted below) by Chef Jacob Oliver.

Sometime in the coming months, Elements of Composition will also be released at Sante Adairius in Capitola, California and Jester King in Austin, Texas (dates to be announced).

We’re very grateful to have had the chance to work together on this project. We have an immense amount of respect for each other’s philosophy and approach to making beer, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have had the opportunity. We hope you enjoy the result and use it to celebrate friendship, which is the spirit in which Elements of Composition was created.

Cheers,

Adair Patero — Sante Adairius Rustic Ales
Linsey & Trevor Rogers — De Garde Brewing
Jeffrey Stuffings — Jester King Brewery

Tasting the potential blending options


Taking notes


Discussing the blend


Brewers from De Garde, Jester King, and Sante Adairius