Wildflower Brewing & Blending - St Florence 2017

St Florence is an ale refermented with wine grapes. In 2017, it was made from spontaneously fermented beer from Gerringong NSW and Sauvignon Blanc grapes from Orange NSW. The fruit was hand picked and underwent a weeklong whole bunch carbonic maceration in the bottom of a 500L puncheon. A barrel of one year old spontaneously fermented beer was racked on top to begin maceration and secondary fermentation. The fruit was in contact with the beer for 10 weeks to allow for near-complete fermentation by cultures off the skins of the grapes as well as those still alive in the beer at racking. The beer was then moved back to barrel for 4 months to complete fermentation. It was blended with one year old ale as well as a small amount of Gold.