Four Phantoms Learning from Historical Ferments

Head Brewer and owner Drew Phillips of Four Phantoms Brewery in Greenfield Massachusetts spoke on Folks Traditions and the Co-Fermentation of Wort and Apple Juice and  a co-ferment called Old Gods (8.0%). There were two talks on the subject, with the first being November 3rd and the second on November 6th as part of CiderDays 2.0 compilation of events. This episode is from the November 6th talk that took place at the brewery.

Drew is no stranger to fermenting having spent time brewing first in Oregon and then cider at Artifact Cider Project in Florence ,Massachusetts before opening Four Phantoms over a year ago.

He has an interest in old recipes and pushing the envelope with special ferments and Old Gods is a great representation of what can be done, when done well. (Read: Old Gods is delicious!!)

Folk Traditions Around Co-fermenting Farmhouse Ale and Apple Juice

Drew notes that historically for farmhouse ales and cider, there wasn’t such a delineation between beer, cider and mead as there is now. He notes how that in Wassail songs , the call for mixing cider, beer, and elderberry boughs all into the same beverage. The use of Hydrometers or the science of acid titration are recent adaptations to a farmhouse fermenter’s tool box.

Up until the 19th century you’d brew by taste and if the wort didn’t taste good you would grind up more grain and mash it in.

Drew notes that apple juice doesn’t have great building blocks for yeast health whereas wort does have Yan (Yeast Assimiable Nutrients), thus Farmhouse ales as such where often blended in with fresh pressed apple juice or cider.

In this type of co-fermentation there is no boiling of the wort and there is no addition of hops. Thus the grain in mashed (which requires heating water to extract the wort) and then is blended in with fresh pressed apple juice.

The Making of Old Gods at Four Phantoms

• 100 gallons of unpasteurized Mcintoush apple juice.
• No yeast inoculation
• Blend in with Raw ale – typical farmhouse style
  • The wort was not boiled –
  • No hops
  • Mashed into a whole mash tun of birch branches

Contact info for Four Phantoms Brewery

Website: https://www.fourphantoms.net/

Address: 301 Wells Street, Greenfield, MA 01301

Mentions in this Chat

• CiderCon 2023 – February 1-3, 2023

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