J. Wakefield (2024)

Could J Wakefields be credited for the creation of fruited kettle sour beer style (and the more local name of the Florida Weisse)? It seems they were at the forefront of it. Ashame that pioneers can't continue.

 

for the name florida weisse, yes. for the style, definitely not.

the first bottled fruited KS i'd ever seen was Ching Ching from bend brewing, and that was back in 2011. JW didn't open until 2015. i've spent a little bit searching here and i can't seem to find any earlier (although i'm sure there's a couple).. was sam adams cranberry lambic a kettle sour? that dates back to 1990 and some homebrew versions of the recipe utilize kettle souring... hmm good question tho

 

While I’m sure Wakefield didn’t invent it the style, he definitely pushed the fruited kettle sour in the direction it has gone. He began making it early on in his home brewing career and won a lot of accolades for it. In fact, the former owner of Cigar City Joey Redner gave Wakefield a job at CCB way back in the day because he was so blown away by Wakefield’s early home brew versions of DFPF.