Allagash Coolship: Resurgam Release

Written by Dave Leshinski

Portland, Maine’s Allagash Brewing has always had a soft spot for experimenting with Belgian brewing traditions. From barrel aging with fruit, to wild yeast strains, there isn’t much they haven’t done. 

In the fall of 1997, the brewery decided to take it a step further and bring back a very old and traditional process of cultivating wild yeast from their own back yard. They built a coolship, which is a large, shallow metal pan that quickly cools the freshly brewed wort over night, as well as letting the naturally occurring wild yeast in the air to inoculate their beer. The wort is then placed in wooden barrels to ferment for up to 3 years, or whenever the brewery deems it fit for consumption.

Their Coolship series is very limited due to the length of time it takes for the beer to mature. It is only sold from the brewery and is rarely publicized with hopes that each batch will be readily available to the beer enthusiasts that visit and tour the facility.

Allagash's Coolship. (Photo courtesy of Allagash Brewing Company)

Spontaneous yeast getting wild. (Photo courtesy of Allagash Brewing Company)

Luckily, being the beer stalker I am, I found out that they released Coolship Resurgam the beginning of January and still had plenty of bottles left. I immediately rushed to Portland and snagged 2 bottles.

Coolship Resurgam is a gueuze style beer, that is a blend of one, two, and three year old, un-fruited coolship. It pours a hazy, straw color with a sizable head. Aromas of freshly milled grain, citrus and yeast are present. Tart and lemony up front on the palate, there is a pleasant “funk” from the wild yeast, with a refreshing, peppery finish. It is definitely one of the most balanced and flavorful examples of gueuze I have tried yet. Let’s just say that the second bottle in my cellar will not be around very long.   

A Day In The Life of an 'Assistant To The Brewer'

Atlas Brewing Company is one of Chicago’s newest craft beer destinations. Resurrecting the name of one of Chicago’s oldest breweries which closed after prohibition, the NEW Atlas is a small brewpub serving a variety of handcrafted beer paired with a creative food menu. I had the pleasure of meeting brothers and brewers Ben and John Saller when the brewpub first launched last spring. Adjoining Seven Ten Lounge, its a really fun spot for bowling and craft beer!

After months of beer talk and homebrewing tips, Ben kindly allowed me the opportunity to come in and assist on a brew day, to experience craft brewing on a scale much larger than my apartment kitchen setup. Atlas brews on a 7 barrel system and is currently producing 1-2 batches a week. The Atlas brewpub has anywhere from 8-10 of their own beers on tap at any given time, which is impressive! The recipe we were brewing that day was a Russian Imperial Stout. This style is a high gravity, dark, full-bodied stout with a very complex roasted malt flavor. The ABV can range anywhere from 8-12%. We were shooting for 10% with an OG (Original Gravity) of 1.100. Ben’s recipe called for 770 pounds of grain. I realized quickly after sizing up the grain bags, that getting the grain into the Mash Tun was going to be the first challenge of the day!

Although the process was roughly the same as homebrewing, witnessing it at this scale was overwhelming to say the least. He walked me through each step of the process even allowing me to do some of the more glamorous tasks like hopping the beer, measuring the gravity and last but not least using the power hose!

While we had some downtime I was able to pick Ben’s brain on a few questions I had.

What inspired you to take the leap from homebrewing to owning a brewpub?
I wasn’t really finding many other things that I enjoyed doing for a living. I love cooking and sharing food and beer with people. When I started homebrewing I found that friends enjoyed partaking, so doing that as a profession definitely appealed to me. Some people say you shouldn’t try to turn your hobby into a job because it will ruin the fun but so far that hasn’t been the case.

What has your experience of the Chicago craft beer community been like over the last year?
Its been pretty amazing to see that people whose businesses compete with each other are basically like family in a lot of cases. We’ve received a huge amount of support from a wide range of people and nobody ever seems hesitant to withhold advice or encouragement from us. Its been great. We try to help out other breweries like they’ve helped us, but featuring their products here and giving them assistance in any way we can. Hopefully as the craft beer industry grows that sense of family doesn’t go away.

How would you define your brewing style? Do you find that you gravitate towards certain types of recipes?
We don’t tend to do really outlandish stuff here, but we also don’t necessarily stick rigidly to known styles. I think an example of something unique was our Monadnock Rye Ale. It was a pretty smooth brown ale with English and Noble hop character, brewed with a decent amount of rye to give it a little complexity and spice. That was a beer different from any I’d had before - it was something that we came up with and were very happy with. The barrel-aged Monadnock Rye won a medal at FoBAB (Festival of Barrel Aged Beer) which was pretty cool. The Quadrupal with oak and cognac was another recipe we thought would taste good. We’re going to start doing some things we haven’t tried yet like an occasional cask ale, brewing with wild yeast as well as with fruit when it comes back in season. There’s so much that can be done with just those four ingredients (water, malt, hops, and yeast) that I think that John and I are fascinated at the possibilities.

Thanks again for the learning opportunity Atlas. It was a great day!

The Beer Geek's Christmas List

Upcycled Notebooks - This is my favorite thing I've found this year! The Roaming Pint sells 3 packs of notebooks made from used 6-pack beer carriers. You can choose from an assortment of Regional breweries or send in your own cartons for a custom design order. Perfect for taking beer notes and making lists at home or on the go - it's the perfect size. theroamingpint.com/store/notebooks ($10-12) 

The Pop Chart Lab Beer Poster - Signed and numbered by the artist this comprehensive collection of over 89 varieties of beer including glassware is a beer geek’s dream. ($32)

http://popchartlab.com/collections/prints/products/the-very-very-many-varieties-of-beer

Custom Bottle Caps - For the serious homebrewer, packaging is an important aspect. Bottlemark sells a large variety of bottle cap designs or allows you to upload your OWN designs. They sell Gift Certificates as well - $10 gets you 55 caps (5 gallon batch). www.bottlemark.com

Build A 6-Pack - at Bottles & Cans. Chicago’s newest craft beer, wine and spirits store, located right in the heart of North Center has an unbelievable selection. The build your own aspect makes for a fun gift for any beer enthusiast ($12-20) www.bottlesandcanschicago.com

Brew Classes at Brew Camp - Offering classes spanning from the basics to the more intermediate you will leave feeling enlightened and full of beer knowledge. ($10-20)

www.brewcamp.com

BeerSmith 2.0. - This inexpensive homebrewing software is a helpful tool for those looking to branch out and start building and tracking recipes. ($27)

www.beersmith.com

Beer Geek T-shirts - from www.Brewershirts.com. Ladies, Men, font collectors, lobster lovers - there are plenty of geek-shirts to go around! ($15-20) 

Bottle Opener iPhone Case - This durable phone case has a built-in stainless steel bottle opener. Nerdy - yes. Practical - pretty much! Made by Be A Headcase, but best price is on amazon.com ($13)

BeerAdvocate Magazine - Always well written and designed - my favorite of the beer magazines because of the in depth culture and hometown style features. ($14.99)

www.beeradvocate.com

Beer Knowledge - Staple reference guides for tasters and brewers alike. (www.amazon.com)

Tasting Beer (Randy Mosher), $12

Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation (Jamil Zainasheff), $12

Hop Variety Handbook (Dan Woodske), $10

Brewing Classic Styles (Jamil Zainasheff/John Palmer), $12