Beer
Speciation is known for its signature “wild” ales. Mitch Ermatinger refers to their beers as “rustic, wild beer that’s fermented with yeast from the environment.” Rather than traditionally inoculate their beers with lab-grown yeast, Speciation relies on what’s naturally floating around in the air (within the brewery) to make the magic happen.
Speciation also brews beer with single yeast cultures, including a lager, a pale ale and a stout. A Norwegian yeast strain called Kviek is used to ferment those beers, and they are available year round.
Prior to recent technologies that allow brewers to extract a single cell of yeast in order to harness its strain for consistency, Speciation’s brewing approach gives a nod to the way beer used to be made—one in which each batch, although perhaps the “same beer” on paper, is a beautiful anomaly from the last due to its reliance on trusting that Mother Nature will do her part where technology is generally relied upon.
Speciation takes a collaborative approach to its brewing. The brewery contracts with other breweries to brew unfermented beer for them. They’ve employed Archival, City Built Brewing Co. and the Mitten to handle this phase.
Speciation provides the recipe and the raw materials, and the specifications to the other brewery. That same day, the unfermented beer is turned back over to Speciation, where it spends the rest of its life fermenting, aging, and ultimately being packaged.
What makes Speciation’s beer particularly valuable is the blank canvas from which it starts.
Contained in a large 30-barrel and 50-barrel wooden foeder (approximately 1,000 gallons and 1,500 gallons, respectively), are their two distinct raw, house cultures used for the consistent base of their funky farmhouse ales and their sour/golden ales. It’s these two proprietary cultures that thread Speciation’s beers with its signature, underlying flavor profile foundation.
After being layered with fruit (locally sourced, seasons permitting) and other ingredients, about 75% of Speciation’s beers are laid to rest for months (or, even years) in an array of oak barrels.
While Speciation’s original focus was sour beers, its impressive sour selection is now complemented by a line of non-sour beers, including a lager, pale ale, stout and rotating seasonal beers, all available on draft.
