Upland Brewing Co. Installs French Oak Tank in Expanding Brewery

Indiana’s largest brewery is looking to have a very ‘sour’ future. The Bloomington, Indiana based brewery recently installed a 2,015 gallon (130 keg) capacity oak tank. This is the equivalent to 24 of the typical 70 gallon oak barrels used in wine production. Upland will use the tank for fermentation of their infamous lambic-style beers.

Lambic, a sour style of beer, has been produced for over 500 years beginning in the Pajottenland region of Belgium. It was traditionally brewed by spontaneous fermentation, meaning the brewers would leave the beer open to the air to pick up wild yeast creating a sour beer. Usually made by farmers for a refreshing drink, they weren’t aware what caused the liquid to turn into alcohol, but they knew it was something floating around in the air.

To create the same sour taste of traditional lambic brewing without contaminants from the open air, Upland uses Brettanomyces bruxellensis or “brett” to ferment the lambic. Brett is typically known as a spoilage yeast, and it’s a bug that you don’t ever want in other styles of beer. The brewers at Upland take great care to keep the lambic brewing and bottling process separate from all other functions in the brewery.
The oak tank was originally constructed by Radoux just north of the Bordeaux region of France. It has been used once for red-wine fermentation in California, taking away some of the “oaking” capabilities of the tank. This makes it ideal for lambic fermentation. The tank is a massive 8 feet tall and 8 feet in diameter at the bottom of the tank. It will be able to contain two of Upland’s lambic batches – which it will hold for about 12 months. After one year in the tank, the lambic is moved to the 70 gallon oak barrels where local Indiana fruit is added. After 3 more months in the barrel and another few weeks of bottle conditioning, the lambic is finally ready to enjoy.

After only 2 released batches to the public, Upland has already become renowned for their lambic production. It is the highest-rated American producer according to www.ratebeer.com and requests for the sour beers have come from all over the globe. Even though the beer has only been sold in Indiana, reviews have been seen from as far away as California. The next release of Upland Lambic is due out in early 2010 with a more continuous availability to consumers.