GABF: Congrats to Mystic!

Congratulations to these guys!

 

Many Thanks! All the New England wins at GABF this year demonstrate that many breweries here are taking a step outside the the norms to create something unique and distinctly creative. We were lucky enough to have a category that represents the particular unique direction we are taking things here at Mystic with Indigenous Beer.

Note that this beer was actually the one that the Beer Geeks TV show captured the brewday of, and that episode actually airs this weekend (WCVB 5 in the Boston Market on 10/20 at 12:30 AM):35 am.

I'll post the full press release for the details of the win later when I get a chance.

Cheers,
Bryan
Founder, Mystic Brewery

 

What is "indigenous beer?"

 

If I had to guess, I'd say indigenous beer is beer brewed entirely with local ingredients including yeast.

 

Indigenous Beer.

The Boulder-based Brewers Association announced today that it’s recognizing historical or region-specific styles that employ ingredients or brewing techniques unique to their areas.
Sound a little vague? The BA gives a few examples.
The Finnish Sahti style, a farmhouse ale where the wort is filtered through juniper twigs and goes unboiled, would qualify.
New Belgium offers a Sahti-inspired brew locally. And of course, perpetual experimenter Dogfish Head offers its Sah’tea as well as many other styles that could fit into the new category.

Mystic was awarded a gold medal in the ‘Indigenous Beer’ category for Vinland Two. This specialty project was Mystic’s second anniversary release in which a pure culture of indigenous American yeast is used to brew the beer.
“The Vinland microbe hunting project has taken years of patience and vision for all of us. To see it earn a gold in it’s first year as a submission to the GABF contest is a great honor to receive from the brewing community” said Bryan Greenhagen, founder of Mystic Brewery.

The beer is fermented with a native New England saccharomyces yeast strain that was cultured and isolated from wild blueberries in Norridgewock, ME. The beer presents a pale color and light malt body that illuminates the entirely unique intricacies of the native New England yeast. The indigenous microbes lend a full, round mouthfeel and suggest fruity hints of blueberry, though there are no blueberries in the beer.

quotes from the facebook entry and other info about this category.
so psyched for Mystic winning this.

 

Thanks for the info, very interesting.

 

glad to hear.

i was excited about mystic from their concept, and while i thought their saison batch 1 was "good but kind of meh and not without flaws," i think the quality of their beer has been going up on a steep curve. e.g. i've loved what they brought to the past few beer fests i've attended (like "this is around the high end of the fest," loved). newer saisons, wild ales, really fantastic. hoping for even more improvement.

 

FYI Here is the press release:
http://mystic-brewery.com/content/m...dal-gabf-beer-brewed-native-new-england-yeast

Indigenous Beer as described above is definitely the right category. I think Vinland Two is listing on BA as a "saison" which is making people expect something very different from what it is although its definitely made with farmhouse ale methods as are most of our non-wigglesworth series beers.

Interesting note; not in the press release: this year's "Day of Doom" is being made with our native MA yeast strain (Winnie) and we are migrating Descendant to a native strain as well.

 

Can't say I drink much Mystic, but I tried the session saison thing on tap recently and thought it had similar "not without flaws" as batch 1 of their saison.

 

When did you start using different yeast for Day of Doom? I'd assume the batch number would be different, too?

 

Interesting that I can't Beermail you to ask you where you had it. Table Beer is widely considered one of our best beers and it has one of the highest ratings on BA for a saison under 4.5% ABV. Did we not put enough bullshit hype in it?

 

The current batch that is fermenting has the native strain in it as did our original test batches which we loved but took forever to ferment. The first commercial batch with native yeast will be batch #4.
Cheers!

 

Winnie is the yeast from Vinland One, right? And originally, at least commercially, Day of Doom used some Trappist yeast, correct?

A side question: when was the 1st batch of Day of Doom bottled?

 

Yes, "Winnie" is the yeast from Vinland One. The Vinland Two yeast is called "Pride of Norridgewock." The first three batches of Day of Doom used a trappist culture. Batch 1 was bottled on Sept 1, 2012.

 

Thanks. Any experience with aging Day of Doom? I liked it when it was just bottled, but am curious how it tastes after a year. Of course, I could just open a bottle , but thought I'd ask - maybe you know.

Regarding the use of yeast: so for quadrupel, you're switching from trappist yeast to plum yeast?

 

Yes, Day of Doom definitely ages well. We are using Native (Winnie) and cultured Belgian yeast in this year's Day of Doom.