Crosby's Kitchen & CocktailVin de Saison

As the trend in the US for barreled beers steadily grows we have been hard at work getting our very own barrel program up and running. We started with the Vannie Hout and have moved forward with the Vin de Saison, Devil’s Peak Brewing Company’s very own wine and beer hybrid. What is a wine and beer hybrid? It’s rather an open category, but essentially it translates to grape must (juice) or even whole grapes being incorporated during the brewing process. Some add it to the mash others add it to the boil and some even combine it directly to the cooled wort prior to fermentation. For our regular Vin de Saison we added 20% Swartland Chenin blanc aquired from Mullineux Family wines. We opted for this grape variety as it’s the most widely grown wine grape variety in South Africa and increasingly becoming a force to be reckoned with internationally. In addition to our regular Vin de Saison, this year we mixed things up a bit by allowing one barrel to ferment naturally/wild without the addition of our regular Saison yeast, rather relying on yeast present on the grapes and within the barrel. So what does a wine beer hybrid taste like? Well it’s fundamentally a beer with a super fresh aroma and a lovely crisp grape derived acidity. Typically I like to describe these beers as the Champagne of the beer world. The 2014 Vintage of Vin de Saison launched on Friday, April 14th and is now available at The Taproom and select restaurants and retailers. Click here for details!