Photo courtesy of de Garde Brewing
“We want a temperate climate to manage ambient bacterial populations,” Rogers said. “It provides for better storage of barrels of maturing and fermenting beer. You don’t want too insanely cold and you don’t really want it incredibly hot.”
de Garde Brewing became the first brewery in the United States to use strictly spontaneous fermentation.
“We had to go through a lot of trial and error and figure out what recipes and processes work best for our location,” Rogers said.
The process de Garde utilizes has more in common with wine making than with traditional beer making, particularly with timelines.
“Most beer is made in a matter of a few weeks. Ours takes close to three years on average from start to finish,” Rogers said.
Almost all ingredients used in de Garde products are from Oregon.
“Our grain is all from the region,” Rogers said. “Our hops are all from the region (except for a few dozen pounds). All of our fruits are from within the state including the grapes that we use for both beer and wine making. If we were trying to make something that speaks of a place, I think that the closer you can keep those ingredients to home, the better.”
Rogers notes that their beer is “wildly” different (no pun intended) from what most people would consider beer.
“It’s very much in-line with what beer would have been 100-150 years ago,” he said. “There’s an element of acidity to it. The tartness to it can be a bit of a surprise to folks. We always tell people: ‘Sip it, then have a second. You’ve got to recalibrate what you’re expecting to taste.’”
