The Making of Bière D’Automne

Rain drops enhanced the natural smells and colors of the Blackberry Farm Garden as New Belgium Brewing Company’s Wood Cellar Director and Blender Lauren Limbach, Blackberry Farm Brewery Brewmaster Travis Hixon, Farmstead Manager Dustin Busby and Blackberry Brewer Tim Moore let their senses guide them through wet grass and thriving Spring garden rows.

With a background in flavor science, Lauren has used her master palate to pilot the efforts for intertwining sensory and beer for a richer creation and experience. Lauren ran the sensory program at New Belgium for 13 years, and her senses heightened as the group walked, talked and tasted.

“The thought of all the different, amazing things you can make out of what grows in this garden over the course of the whole year is crazy,” says Lauren.

The group stops to taste sage, dissecting the different flavors. A bite into the green sends a powerful, bitter sage zest over the taste buds. They pluck the blossoms, enjoying a more mellow flavor with a touch of sweetness. The blossoms are in.

It was a Nashville distributor that planted the seed for a collaboration between New Belgium and the Blackberry Farm Brewery. “It was before I even found out that Travis got the job,” Lauren remembers. “A distributing partner called me and said I should work with Blackberry Farm because it would combine his two favorite breweries.”

Longtime friends in the industry, Lauren and Travis relished the opportunity to create together. For the first collaboration, the pair worked at New Belgium and released Bière de Mai in May 2018. For that beer, they went lighter on the flavor using a Brettanomyces strain that was clean and more fruit-forward to create a late Spring wild ale with a carefully complex light flavor balance and bright acidity brought by the addition of sour foeder beer. So, for the second collaboration, the duo wanted to get funkier.

A couple rows away, the Garden team yells over to confirm they’ve gathered enough bunches of herbs. “You want the flavors in a beer to have an affect that’s not muddy. I think you can probably come up with some perfect 100 spice blend, but less is more,” says Travis. “We’re looking to accent some things that are already going on in the beer and have a little flavor of the Farm.”

It’s a treat to witness Lauren work through her process. As she tastes, she evaluates the flavor and you can see her imagining how it will interact with the existing recipe. Black walnut is out. She says that the flavor will get lost in the mix, but the thought leads to a short diversion imagining using a walnut nocino to brew a Tripel. “I have all these ideas. This is great,” Lauren smiles.

The foundation of the beer remains, but exploring the garden certainly influences the final flavor. “It’s like grocery shopping. This is why you need to actually go to the grocery store instead of shopping online,” Lauren says. “You have no idea what you might find.”

Bière D’Automne uses Pilsner, Munich and Rye malt blended with fresh blossoms and buds picked on the Farm. It’s a taste of the seasons at Blackberry Farm and a testament to senses, creativity and friendship.