(Fort Collins, CO) – An update from Crooked Stave Brewing.

In addition to what I got from the brewery’s founder, Chad Yakobson, below, there have been a ton of recent updates on the Crooked Stave website.

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Crooked Stave expands production 150%…not that hard when you’re as small as us but a big step for any brewery all the same! On March 15th we welcomed into our fermentation cellar a 25hl foeder or large oak fermenter. Traditionally used by Winemakers to ferment and age wine in, we will be using it in much the same way to produce our unique American-style Petite Sours. The foeder we have purchased was custom built in 2007 and has the unique ability to do temperature-controlled primary fermentation through cooling coils running on the inside of the vessel.

Primary fermentation in oak is unique with only a handful of breweries in the US producing such beers. Our commitment to producing expressive well crafted beers means we are constantly working on ways to blend old world traditions with creativity and passion. Bringing the 25hl foeder into our cellar furthers our reach on what’s possible allowing us to incorporate the nuances of the oak as another ingredient in the beers. It also provides a wonderful home for the resident bugs we use for mixed culture fermentation.

We’ll be commissioning our new foeder this Saturday with an exclusive brew for our friends at Euclid Hall Bar and Kitchen in Denver. After that, we plan to brew our first batch to be released commercially, our seasonal American Petite Sour. These beers are a hybrid of ‘Berliner Weisse/Gose meets New World Wheat’ beer, expressive sessionable sours which change with the seasons.