My latest article for The Bulletin is about one of Central Oregon’s newest brewery operations, Funky Fauna Artisan Ales in Sisters. Opened at the end of 2021, Funky Fauna focuses primarily on small batch wild fermentation with a house-cultured yeast, often supplemented by barrel aging. All of the beers are available on draft only, except for several that have been canned (and one is newly bottled).

I picked up the two in cans, Natas Vulpes Wild Blood Orange Witbier and Right To Bloom Wild Saison with fruit, to review for the article, in which I also wrote about the wild yeast.

“We ferment and naturally condition 100% of our beers exclusively with our house wild culture,” [owner/brewer Michael] Frith said via email, “so there are no commercial pitches, just wild yeast and bacteria native to Sisters, which we are super stoked on.”

I asked about the process by which he foraged the yeast. “We cultured our house wild yeast right out of the air here at the brewery in Sisters,” he said. “In a nod to Belgian lambic tradition, we used our kettle as a ‘koelschip’ on a crisp winter night last December, letting a batch of our beer naturally cool overnight next to an open window so that it could be spontaneously inoculated with wild yeast and bacteria floating through the air.”

He was able to propagate the culture for full-scale brewing.

“This was our first attempt at capturing wild yeast in this method, and we continue to harvest and reuse this same culture in every one of our beers.”

If you read the full article you’ll also get my notes on each of the canned beers. If you’re a fan of wild, funky fermentation, then you’ll want to check out Funky Fauna when you get the chance.