Today our friends at August Schell Brewing Company begin to bottle the latest in their Noble Star Series, North Country Brünette. This beer is 5.4% Berliner marzen weisse. Brewed in June of 2013, this beer has been aging for about 10 months. Once the beer is bottled, they’ll give it another few weeks to bottle condition before shipping it out.
The second release in Schell’s Noble Star Collection will be their Framboise du Nord. The beer takes a twist on the Berliner Weisse tradition of adding a shot of sweet syrup to he beer when drinking, but instead of using syrup, Schell’s added raspberries during secondary fermentation. Schell’s Jace Marti says it the beer should be “a refreshingly sour beer full of raspberry flavor.” The first batch of the Noble Star Collection ended up being split between to batches since the cypress lagering tank they used was so large. The first half was released as Star of the North, and the second half was transferred back into a stainless steel tank along with 5000 pounds of raspberries, where it fermented for an additional four months. Right now they’re looking at a November release. Expect this beer to pour a bright, neon red color with a pink foam head. If you’re lucky enough to have Autumn Brew Review tickets, they’ll be pouring a single keg of this beer at the event as a sneak preview. Save some for me!
Here’s the news that Jace at Schell’s has been threatening to share for the past couple of days. TL:DR – Schell’s is launching a line of specialty beers called the Noble Star Collection based on the Berliner Weiss style. What’s more, they’ll be using their remaining 30s era cypress wood aging tanks. I visited the brewery in 2006 or 2007 with the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild and remember checking out these huge wood tanks and always thought they’d be a nice home for beer again someday. Read on for the complete press release from Schell’s.
Here’s our 2008 article on the tank restoration.
More photos and complete details after the jump.
