Bend Toward Daylight
Is/Was Brewing

Spelt Grisette Conditioned on Spanish Cedar

Bend Toward Daylight was inspired by a tree that grows in a small, grassless patch of dirt between the sidewalk and the street on the block where I live. It is surrounded by apartment buildings that block it from the sun on nearly all sides and yet this tree twists and gnarls its way toward the sky in a respectful defiance of these structures to find the light it needs to thrive. It never resented these buildings, it simply kept seeking the light and ascending to heights that eventually surpassed those of the buildings that once eclipsed it.

Bend Toward Daylight is mashed with Wind Malt and malted spelt from Sugar Creek, as well as unmalted spelt from Janie’s Mill. Wind Malt is made by ‘kilning’ the germinated barley in the sun and warmth of summer wind rather than more intense, modern heating sources. It is how the malt used in original lambic, witbier or berliner weisse would have been made. We then co-ferment it with our house saison yeast and lactobacillus before conditioning it on Spanish Cedar.

The resulting beer offers up notes of grapefruit juice, sandalwood, yellow Gatorade, cedar, and cucumber with a light, quenching acidity and a hint of woody tannin on the finish. Its complexity belies 3.5% ABV but never sacrifices drinkability.