The Demon’s Farm Rattles Portland…and this Brewer’s Brain

This past weekend the Cheers To Belgian Beers Festival was hosted by Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland. The festival idea is to get a group of Oregon brewers to formulate their own beer with one chosen Belgian yeast strain. To encourage diversity brewers randomly threw darts. Depending on what section of the dart board was hit dictated the direction of the brew; light, dark, strong, or mild beer. I liken the event to brewers Iron Chef, the yeast being the secret ingredient with an attached time frame to complete the beer. We entered a beer last year, Oregon Castle, which quite honestly, I was not that proud of. Blame it on timing, or the youth of our brewery, or even my lack of inspiration. The batch was never served at our pub. It wasn’t bad, but it was pretty boring. So this year I decided not to enter the festival as we have been busy as hell trying to keep up at our pub. Well, someone threw a dart for us anyways, so I figured the beer Gods wanted us to play the game.

We were required to brew a dark, high gravity beer with a Belgian Saison yeast strain. Whereas most beer we design at Block 15 begins with a finished idea in mind, working backwards to the start, this beer was halfway the opposite. I pondered what to do for a few days. As we have moved to more and more barreled aged beers, I tend to have some sort of barrels lying around the brewery. In short, I decided a Black Saison aged in Pinot Noir, Oregon Oak, and Bourbon barrels blended with a touch of cherry would be a complex effort that made sense. The Pinot Noir barrel had tested for Brettanomyces, something that I believed would add even more complexity, and compliment to the beer. “La Ferme’ de Demons” was born…in my head.

We were able to immediately brew the beer and rack into barrels. The Oregon Oak barrel threw a ton of tannins within the first two weeks, and was that portion of the batch was removed to stainless. The beer in the bourbon and Pinot barrels continued to aged an additional 6 weeks, picking up subtle nuances. We blended the barrels and introduced Oregon Black cherry to balance the brew. Now here comes some brutal honesty…I almost pulled the entry to the festival. This was possibly due to me being a bit gun-shy from the previous festival, but more because I know how fantastic this beer will be with additional aging and Brett development. But as in Iron Chef, you present what you have when the time comes, no excuses. Take the feedback and learn from it to better your operation.

La Ferme’ de Demons was a hit at the festival winning the Peoples Choice Award. This literally blew me away. I wasn’t able to attend the festival, but the line up look very good. There were nice representations of unique beers brewed by some great Oregon Brewers. Not everyone enjoyed La Ferme’ de Demons, a quick search of Beer Bloggers showed a split of opinions, mainly positve with a couple strong critques, more aging time needed being the #1 remark. Well, I agree with all of them! (Maybe I should be a politician!).

La Ferme’ de Demons has been re-barreled, less the Oregon Oak and dosed with Brett. I anticipate that in about 3-4 months the character of the Brett will meld with the barrel notes and accentuate some cherry pie love. Will this bridge the gap between opinions? Only time will tell. Look for La Ferme de Demon’s on tap here and one or two select Portland taprooms in October…and in limited 750ml corked bottles!

As the winner of Peoples Choice award I get to select the yeast strain for next year’s competition. Yes, my vote would be for some Brett or the Roeselare blend, but I don’t believe all breweries are set up to tame the wild. As I travel to Belgium next week I will look into the possibility of Wyeast being able to supply special yeast that I will be able to sample on location. I will work with the organizers quickly and encourage a timely dart throw to give our great Oregon breweries ample design and conditioning time.

In the past, the winning brewery would have the honor to host the festival the following year. I believe the fest should stay in Portland as the market is best for the event. I will begin taking bribes immediately! We have our fun in Corvallis, come check out Bloktoberfest, October 9th; and tentatively mark you calendar for November 6th…I’m working on an event that beer enthusiasts from around the state will not want to miss!

Comment

1. Jeff Alworth · Wednesday May 5, 2010 · 1

   Thanks for the reflections! I personally would support any lobbying effort in support of you getting to host the fest next year should you wish to mount such a thing. Seems only fair.

   As for the yeast, I polled my readers, and it’s looking like Duvel, Rodenbach, Dupont, and Hoegaarden Grand Cru are the faves. Roeselare would definitely make for a fun time!

   Congrats, folks—

2. David Severns · Thursday May 6, 2010 · 2

   Congrats Nick! Way to Brew! I agree with you that PDX is better suited to host that event. However, if you win next year, the Beer Gods will have spoken. Love the Nov. 6th tease. DS

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