My latest article for The Bulletin is out this week, featuring a new barrel-aged beer from GoodLife Brewing in its Peach Chardonnay Hybrid Wine Ale. I profile the brew and get some background from Tyler West, GoodLife’s Director of Brewing Operations.

“We started with a fresh growth of Brettanomyces (wild yeast) on our flagship Sweet As Pacific Ale,” West said via email. “Once we had a healthy ‘pitch’ of yeast we added four French oak wine barrels of fermented and aged saison. We again freshened up the blend with some more Sweet As wort, to achieve a highly attenuating strong fermentation.”

This base brew was blended with concentrated Chardonnay must (crushed grape juice that can often contain skins, seeds, and stems) and aged in barrels for a year, allowing the Brettanomyces to continue to ferment. “Brett” yeast is known for its signature barnyard and horse blanket characteristics but can also impart bright fruity notes including those of pineapple and stone fruit.

After 12 months, peach juice was added to the beer-wine hybrid to allow for conditioning after bottling. “We then ‘laid the bottles down’ for two months before releasing them to market,” West said. The longer bottle conditioning time allows for the yeast to naturally carbonate the ale and soften any sharp flavors.

GoodLife had provided me bottles to review which I turned into this article. Overall, it’s a good summertime beer to enjoy paired with fresh fruit, and it’s limited, so don’t miss out if you want to try it.