My latest article for The Bulletin takes a look at the newest in the Coolship Experiment beer series from Crux Fermentation Project, Crux Coolship Experiment No. 6. Crux teamed up with Rogue Creamery of southern Oregon to brew a lambic-style ale in which the same microorganisms used to create Rogue’s blue cheese were used to inoculate the wort, and the coolship was parked in the Rogue’s facility overnight to further capture the creamery’s wild yeasts and bacteria.

The press release even indicated that the cheese itself was added to the beer.

Blue cheese in beer? Have no fear — according to brewmaster Cam O’Connor, “We didn’t actually put a wedge of cheese in the wort. We added tinfoil that contained the microflora that Rogue uses in their blue cheese.”

The base recipe for the beer is fairly simple, consisting of wheat, pilsner malt and two-row pale malt, with Hersbrucker and Saaz hops. “We also added lactose to this recipe so the blue cheese microflora had some nutrients to ferment,” said O’Connor. The complexity derives from the wild yeast and bacteria as well as the oak barrel aging.

No. 6 fermented and aged in oak for nearly two years, and it’s out now. It’s a fun beer, full of complexity and a bit funky—but it doesn’t taste like blue cheese. Though it would pair really well with it!