Crown-Breaker Artisan Ale
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

For the 10th annual Extreme Beer Fest, Dogfish Head and BeerAdvocate wanted to reinterpret the EBF tradition of brewing beer outside the “Reinheitsge-box” (as Sam Calagione puts it) by brewing a beer that falls within the guidelines of the German purity law. Behold: Crown-Breaker Artisan Ale. It’s a hybrid ale that draws on influences from the Rauchbiers of Bamberg and Gose beers of Leipzig.

The 10 ingredients were chosen by Dogfish Head, the Alström brothers, and the BeerAdvocate community, and they were all sourced from mom & pop producers. Ingredients include filtered tap water from Rehoboth, Del.; ocean water from the Delaware coast; Pilsner malt from valley Malt in Hadley, Mass.; Crystal 90L malt from Colorado Malting in Alamosa, Colo.; Belma hops from Puterbaugh Farms in Mabton, Wash.; Cascade hops from Aroostook Hops in Westfield, Maine; White Labs WLP008 East Coast Ale yeast; Dogfish Head DNA yeast (from a culture found originally at Fifer Orchards in Camden-Wyoming, Del.); Brettanomyces custersianus from East Coast yeast out of North Jersey; and wild cherrywood from Fifer Orchards.

The result is a 5% ABV, clean, malt-forward ale, with a hint of campfire from smoking a portion of the Pilsner malt and the whole-leaf Cascade hops with the wild cherrywood. The finish is delicately salty from the ocean water, and the Brettanomyces custersianus yeast will add acidity with age, while remaining clean without the typical “horse blanket” character associated with most Brettanomyces strains. Cheers!