Terroir Project is collaborative endeavor organized by our friends at Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles, California. It involves stretching the limits between wine and beer by co-fermenting 51% wort with 49% native grapes.
This co-mingling of “grains and grapes” represented a fun new approach for us. We typically take mature, barrel-aged beer and referment it with grapes. In this case, we blended wort and grapes together at the outset of fermentation and let them co-ferment. This simultaneous approach yielded some really interesting and exciting results that we’re very happy to share! Our wort consisted of pilsner malt and wheat, and our grapes were native-grown Syrah from northeast Texas (Sulphur Bluff). We racked the blend of wort and grapes into oak barrels for a slow fermentation that lasted 10 months. Our Head Brewer Averie Swanson writes, “The finished beer is really nice! Very wine-like and dusty. The oak presents as vanilla and integrates nicely into the beer. It has a lovely pink color!”
Terroir Project is 6.7% alcohol by volume. It will be released this FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19TH AT 4PM. It will be available by the glass and in bottles to go (750ml/$24) at our restaurant and tasting room. We only have about 1,000 bottles available with a bottle limit of two per customer per day. Aside from special events, Terroir Project will only be available at Jester King.
Special thanks to our friends at Firestone Walker for inviting us to be part of the inaugural Terroir Project! It’s really special for us to collaborate with a brewery that inspired us to make beer in the first place and has been a continual source of support and inspiration. Cheers!