Yesterday Summit Brewing Company formally announced the launch of the twelfth beer in their Unchained series, 100% Organic Ale. We first brought you news of this beer at the end of December when the label was approved. What we missed, of course is that not only is this beer to be an organic beer, it’ll be Minnesota’s first 100% certified organic beer. This beer is brewer Gabe Smoley’s first Unchained creation and it will be available in draught and bottles the week of March 5.Though organic beers hardly saturate the market, finding one or two isn’t difficult. In fact as far as we know, Flat Earth’s Angry Planet was (to our memory) Minnesota’s first packaged organic beer. As Gabe points out, though, “Most USDA certified organic beers on the market are about 95-99.9% organic because it is extremely difficult to find ingredients like organic yeast. This beer is made with 100% organic ingredients including malts, hops and yeast. I created my own certified organic yeast strain to do this, as there are virtually no organic strains available from laboratories.”
“This has been a challenge, but we enjoy those at Summit. Our company is full of innovators and I am excited to continue that tradition,” added Smoley. “The organic segment of the brewing industry is slowly growing and building steam. My hope is that by working with organic ingredients, we’ll learn some new, sustainable approaches to brewing and promote organic ingredients as a whole to the industry.”
We’re looking to try this one. Summit describes the beer as “a lighter beer perfect for springtime with floral aromas of perfume, rose and potpourri. The malt backbone is mild but balanced, with the distinguishing characteristic of Organic Ale being its hop aroma and flavor as the beer is heavily hopped towards the end of production.”
Organic Ale Specs:
AVB: 4.5%
IBU: 60
Color: Light copper
100% organic hops: Palisade, Cascade, Centennial
100% organic malts: Pale, Munich 10, C-120, Carafa II
Gabe Smoley will attend a series of special kick-off events for Organic Ale, including:
- March 11: Meet the brewer – MacKenzie’s Pub, Minneapolis, 2-5 pm
- March 11: Release party – Butcher & The Boar beer garden, Minneapolis, 5-8 pm
- March 13: Meet the brewer – Brasa St. Paul, 6-8 pm
- Brasa St. Paul and Minneapolis will also feature Unchained 12 food pairings from 5-9 pm
- March 14: “Hoppy Meals” pairings – Republic Uptown, 4-6 pm; Republic Seven Corners, 7-9 pm
- March 15: Firkin Friday with Organic Ale cask – Grumpy’s NE, 4 pm
- March 21: Meet Gabe and sample Organic Ale – Four Firkins, 6-8 pm