(Victor, ID) – Grand Teton Brewing Company is pleased to announce the release of Snarling Badger Berliner Weisse next month. As part of our Cellar Reserve Series, we have been brewing bold, flavorful beers and serving them from large, beautiful bottles since March 2004. On May 15th, please welcome Snarling Badger to the 2012 Cellar Reserve Series.
We’ve always intended these beers to be wonderful when fresh but also to be “cellarable”–to improve with months or even years of proper storage. Over the years we’ve been happiest cellaring our strong malty beers. That’s made selecting styles for our summer Cellar Reserves a challenge, since the best beers for cellaring are not always the best beers to enjoy on a hot summer’s day.
In Berliner Weisse we think we’ve found the perfect style for our summer Cellar Reserve. This north German wheat beer is traditionally brewed and released very fresh. It has a light body from the wheat and refreshingly tart acidity that make it a perfect summer thirst-quencher. Its lemony tartness is provided by a secondary fermentation with Lactobacillus, the same microorganism that’s responsible for yogurt’s tang. That tartness increases and improves with age, so the people of Berlin are known to buy extra bottles to bury in their gardens for two years or more.
As usual with our Cellar Reserves, we’ve taken a traditional style and added our own twist. In this case we’ve tripled the strength over the traditional beer, which should increase its aging potential. For the primary fermentation we used traditional Bavarian hefeweizen yeast that produces soft notes of banana and clove. We followed that withLactobacillus and six months in conditioning to create a complex fruity acidity that compliments the soft sweet malt tones and a unique ale that is both fulfilling and refreshing.
This summer time ale perfectly compliments spicy salmon filets from the grill and can wash down your savory BBQ pork ribs with ease. Enjoy with a fresh arugula salad or salty french fries with blue cheese dressing for dipping. For dessert try, grilled pineapple drizzled with honey.
