Manchester’s Beer Nouveau is crowdfunding a barrel aging programme that will involve the reproduction of brewing recipes and methods from the 18th and 19th centuries.
The programme will involve Beer Nouveau working with craft maltsters to recreate the grains used by breweries of the time, with beer brewed using recipes and processes researched by beer historians such as Ron Pattinson.
Starting with an East India Pale Ale originally brewed in 1868 and a Russian Imperial Stout from 1859, the programme will expand to other heritage styles such as East India Porters and Krieks.
As traditional East India Pale Ales were stored in barrels for 18 months, and Russian Imperial Stouts for 24 months, Beer Nouveau will be financing the programme through crowdfunding, giving investors the opportunity to pre-buy the beers up to two years before they will be ready to drink.
Steve Dunkley of Beer Nouveau, explained: “There are a lot of superb breweries doing great things with barrel aging beers, but we want to play to our strengths.
“We’ve been reproducing heritage recipes for almost three years now, as well as conditioning beers in wooden casks, and now we want to combine these elements and improve upon the reputation we’ve already gained.
“People really enjoy the old beers and learning about how they’ve developed into the ones we drink today, and are as interested in this programme as we are, to see how different, or similar, the beers actually were.”
Dunkley added that setting up a barrel aging programme isn’t cheap but will make sure the project is worth it for investors.
He added: “We want to make sure that every penny someone puts in becomes something worth that penny – although we’re not asking for pennies, we’re asking for pounds. Seven and a half thousand of them, to be precise.
“We’ve the potential to raise more than that with the incentive packages we’re offering, and if we do we’ll be expanding the programme and investing more into the brewery and tap. As much as I could really do with one, we won’t be taking any additional money raised and going off on holiday!”
Beer Nouveau has already brewed parallel recipes with heritage and modern malts, alongside craft maltsters Malting Box of Milton Keynes who are running experiments to improve extraction and efficiency from the grains.
Along with their experience of vintage recipes and conditioning beer in wooden casks, Beer Nouveau is on a firm footing to reproduce these heritage beers to a very close degree, albeit without the sea voyages.
