Earth To Beer Maibock
Fine Creek Brewing Company

Our Earth to Beer Maibock is part of a national Earth Day beer campaign that raises funds for environmental organizations across the country. We worked with Shalom Farms, a nonprofit farm and food justice organization, to brew a lager with sweet potatoes and yarrow. We deeply admired their dedication to equitable and healthy food systems, and this project will help promote and raise funds for their mission and their work.

One of their two farms is located less than 10 miles down the road from our brewery, which is where we sourced the sweet potatoes and yarrow for this project. We roasted those sweet potatoes and mashed them with Murphy & Rude malts and organic raw wheat, from Greater Richmond Grains. The yarrow we dried, before adding it to the whirlpool along with Greenmont Mother hops from Greenmont Hopworks.

The yarrow and sweet potatoes contribute rustic notes to their otherwise traditional Maibock, transforming this spring lager into an herbal and earthy expression of both ingredients. The aroma leads with yarrow derived notes of fresh sage and baked apples alongside malt tones of dried grass and graham cracker. The flavor of the beer is spicier, with upfront notes of allspice and Ceylon cinnamon that fade into a rich sweet potato like earthiness. On the palate this beer is sweet at first, with a pleasant roundness, but restrained bitterness and natural carbonation combine to produce a refreshing dry finish.