River Ridge Black & Fauxjolais
We are excited to release our next limited offerings from its wood cellar, River Ridge Black and Fauxjolais, this Fall. The beers will be available in 750-mL bottles from the tasting room on October 13.
River Ridge Black is a fruited dark ale that aged in French oak for over a year with our house-mixed culture of yeast and bacteria. The beer then conditioned on top of organic black raspberries with black currants. River Ridge Black was bottle conditioned and has an ABV of 8%.
The limited release serves as a part of our Locally Grown Series (a series we use to showcase local ingredients) as we sourced the black raspberries used in the beer from a southeastern farm, River Ridge Organics.
“The team at River Ridge grow a special berry and we’re excited to be able to use their organic fruit in our beer,” said Wood Cellar and Specialty Brand Manager Blake Tyers. “All of the fruits we use in the specialty program are from small family farms. We truly believe you can taste the attention to detail and love that comes from a family in their berries.”
Our appreciation of Old World wine and nuanced flavors inspired the crafting of the beer. Fauxjolais is a fruited blend of saisons from our wine barrel cellar and was made using the spent fruit used in River Ridge Black. The blend conditioned on top of second use organic black raspberries and black currants. The beer was bottle conditioned and has an ABV of 6.9%.
“The name of the beer is a play on words,” said Wood Cellar & Specialty Brand Manager Blake Tyers. “I enjoy drinking Beaujolais wines, which traditionally are very drinkable and have a bit of acid and funkiness. We were inspired to mimic some of those flavors using alternative fruit to grapes in Fauxjolais.”
Our staff member Melissa Merrill created the artwork used on the labels. Merrill painted the original artwork for River Ridge Black with a medium derived from the beer, wheatgrass, and coffee. The original artwork for Fauxjolais was painted with a medium derived from blackberries and ink.
We hope you join us for the release of these special, limited edition beers on Saturday, October 13th. We will also be making some available for pre-sale through Craft Cellr (see button below). For more details on that, please follow us on our Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!