Boulder, Colo. — February 22, 2022 — At Avery Brewing Company, we’re excited to welcome a new rascal to the family. Add some mischief to your day with Little Rascal: a bright, lemony twist on a Belgian-Style white ale.

Inspired by our love for White Rascal, our flagship Belgian-Style White Ale, our brewers played around with some fun variations on a classic. True to the Avery commitment to quality, we began this new brew with authentic Belgian yeast and a traditional malt bill of 50% wheat. Then we went off script, adding Citron Limon, Meyer lemon, and Lemondrop hops.

When you pour Little Rascal into a glass, you’ll notice a light straw color that’s slightly hazy. This inviting appearance comes with an aroma of bright lemon. Lemondrop hops enhance the balance of malt sweetness and tart Meyer Lemon. This light and refreshing ale is entirely crushable, with a subtle citrus finish.

And at 4.5% ABV and with just 100 calories, Little Rascal is a slyly sessionable invite to take a little detour from your daily routine.

We hope you enjoy a little taste of mischief with us. Little Rascal will be available in 6-pack cans across our distribution footprint beginning in March. Find Little Rascal near you with Avery’s brew finder!

Learn more about Little Rascal from John Olson, Avery’s Product Development and Innovation Lead, in the video below.

About Avery Brewing Company: At Avery Brewing Company, we are enthusiastic curators of all things beer. From our home in Boulder, Colorado, we use over 25 years of brewing experience to deliver fan favorites and bold innovations to curious beer lovers everywhere. Join us and we’ll guide you through the limitless world of craft beer with offerings like White Rascal, our flagship Belgian-Style White Ale, a remarkable selection of IPAs, and an impressive barrel-aged series. Beer First. The Rest Will Follow.

Learn more at www.averybrewing.com.

Media Contact: Krista St. Charles, Communications Coordinator, krista@averybrewing.com

Welcome to the Lighter Side of Mischief was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Double Digit is a juicy and hazy Imperial IPA with big fruity hop aromas and low bitterness. This giant hazy IPA is first warm dry-hopped with Simcoe and Amarillo hops, then traditionally dry-hopped with all Mosaic hops to put it over the top.

Love Double Digit as much as we do? Our brewers created a 5-gallon homebrew recipe so you can make this juicy deliciousness at home. Cheers!

Double Digit Homebrew Recipe

(Hopping Scaled for 5-Gallon Recipe)

OG: 22.0 P/1.092 SG

AE: 4.0 P/1.016 SG

ABV: 10.0%

Grist: 64.0% 2-Row Pale Barley, 20.0% Malted White Wheat, 6.0% Spelt Malt, 10.0% Rolled Oats. SRM target: 13

1 Mash Rest: 35 minutes at 72°C/161.6°F

Brewing Salts/Water Chemistry: CaSO4 and CaCl2 to hit a 0.90/1 Sulfate to Chloride Ratio with overall ion targets of Total Calcium @ 160ppm, Chloride @ 160ppm, and Sulfate @ 140ppm. These numbers help with yeast health during a difficult fermentation as well as adding a round mouthfeel to the beer. Note: Check your local water report for base numbers. If in doubt add a small amount of CaCL2 (0.3 oz per 5-gallon recipe) to the Mash or leave it out entirely.

Hops: 50 IBU Target (Note: most of these BUs will come from Dry Hop)

Boil 60-minute total boil time:

- Amarillo @ 8.3 AA: 0.5 oz. Boil for 0 minutes (flame out)

- Simcoe @ 11.9 AA: 0.5 oz. Boil for 0 minutes (flame out)

Dry Hop:

24–48 hours post fermentation start 8.0°P (warm DH)

Simcoe @ 11.9 AA: 3.0 oz

Amarillo @ 8.3 AA: 3.0 oz

Post fermentation (cold DH after crashing temp if possible)

Mosaic @ 12.5 AA: 2.5 oz

Fermentation:

- Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale (We’d suggest at least doubling your normal pitch volume. Yeast is going to have a hard time with high gravity wort and very large Dry Hop.)

- Fermentation: cool wort to 18°C/64.5°F into fermentation vessel before adding yeast. Hold temp at 20.0°C/68.0°F until gravity drops to 8.5°P/1.034 SG then turn up to 22.0°C/71.6°F (this should be around the same time as the warm Dry Hop). At 4.0 P/1.016 SG or after fermentation halts, drop the temperature to 0°C/32°F. If possible, burp yeast after cooling then add cold Dry Hops. Allow at least 24 hours on cold Dry Hop or 8 hours with circulation.

Package: Carb target @3 2.6 volumes

Double Digit Homebrew Recipe was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Go Play IPA 5 Gallon Recipe

OG: 1.048 SG/12.0 P
AE: 1.010 SG/2.5 P

Grist: 65% 2-Row Pale Barley, 20% White Wheat Malt, 15% Vienna Malt (We use Weyermann or Great Western)

1 Mash Rest: 35 minutes at 72°C/162°F

Brewing Salts/Water Chemistry: CaCl2 and CaSO4 to hit a 0.50 Sulfate to Chloride Ratio with overall ion targets of Calcium @ 100ppm, Chloride @ 120ppm and Sulfate @ 60ppm. Note: Check your local water report for base numbers. If in doubt add a small amount of CaCL2 (0.1 oz) to the Mash or leave it out entirely. The goal here is to soften the mouthfeel and make the beer perceived as a bit more malt forward so if your batch comes out too “sharp” then you may need to increase Chloride.

Hops: 38 IBU Target

Boil:

-Apollo @ 14.5 AA: 0.2 oz. Boil for 60 minutes

-Idaho 7 @ 12.2 AA: 0.5 oz. Boil for 0 minutes (flame out)

-Simcoe @ 11.9 AA: 0.5 oz. Boil for 0 minutes (flame out)

Dry Hops:

- Idaho 7: 0.5 oz. Added 48 hours after start of fermentation

- Simcoe: 1.0 oz. Added 48 hours after start of fermentation

- Vics Secret: 1.5 oz. Added 48 hours after start of fermentation

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Fermentation:

- Primary fermentation at 18°C/64.5 °F. When the beer reaches 1.028 SG/7.0 P move to Secondary fermentation and turn the temp up to 22°C/71.5°F until terminal. Or Primary for 5 days and Secondary for 2 days. Crash when beer reaches 1.010 SG/2.5 P

Brewer Notes:

We also add electrolytes to this beer but it doesn’t affect the flavor. If you’d like the authentic Go Play experience with electrolytes then add 0.07 oz of Potassium Citrate to a 5 gallon batch at the end of fermentation just before crashing.

Go Play IPA Homebrew Recipe was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Boulder, Colo. — September 8, 2020 — Avery Brewing Company, a creative craft brewery in Boulder for over 25 years, announces new flavors and a fresh brand look for its Sparkle Glacier Spiked Seltzers. Beginning in January and February of 2021, the Sparkle Variety Pack will include four flavors, with Mango joining the original Cherry Lime, Grapefruit, and CranRaz hard seltzers. Avery will also launch a new Sparkle Berry Pack with four brand new, berry-forward flavors: Blackberry Açaí, Strawberry Watermelon, Blueberry Lemon, and Red Raspberry.

Avery’s brewers spent months trying different flavor combinations for the new Sparkle Berry Pack. After sampling a wide variety of options, the team crafted four clean, refreshing, and all-natural hard seltzers all focused on well-known berries.

Along with the launch of the Sparkle Berry Pack and new flavors, the Sparkle portfolio will also receive an updated look that highlights Sparkle’s Colorado roots, all-natural ingredients, and locally sourced water.

The Avery brewers’ goal with the new Mango and berry flavors was to continue Sparkle’s characteristic light, crisp, and clean flavor profile without additional sweetening. All eight Sparkle varieties have handpicked, quality ingredients, zero added sugars, 100 calories, and 1.5g carbs.

The new Sparkle Variety and Sparkle Berry twelve packs will hit shelves in January and February of 2021. Avery plans to distribute Sparkle mixed twelve packs among its entire national distribution footprint. Find Sparkle near you with Avery’s brew finder: http://www.averybrewing.com/brew-finder

About Avery Brewing Company: A Colorado-based brewery for over 25 years, Avery Brewing has a singular focus on creating the perfect beer. In a world full of discord, Avery believes that a singular dedication to something as seemingly simple and inconsequential as beer can transform the world. Avery Brewing exists to pursue the mastery of beer and to reveal its power. Standouts include White Rascal Belgian-Style White Ale, a remarkable selection of IPAs, including The Maharaja Imperial IPA, and Barrel-Aged 16ers like Vanilla Bean Stout. Discover what great beer can do to your world. Beer First. The Rest Will Follow. Learn more at www.averybrewing.com.

Media Contact: Krista St. Charles, Communications Coordinator, krista@averybrewing.com

Avery to Expand Hard Seltzer Line in 2021 was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Boulder, Colo. — August 3, 2020 — Avery Brewing Company, an innovative craft brewery in Boulder for over 25 years, announces a new addition to their vast barrel-aging portfolio. Introducing Pomona, a barrel-aged tart ale with pomegranate and blueberry added. Beginning in August, Pomona will be available year-round in six-packs of 12oz cans.

House strains of Saccharomyces yeast, Brettanomyces yeast, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus go into creating Pomona, the newest barrel-aged tart ale from Avery. After Pomona ages for 4 months in oak barrels, Avery’s brewers infuse bushels of blueberries and pomegranates. The final product is a delightfully deep purple. Named for the ancient Roman goddess of fruitful abundance, Pomona bestows big, berry-forward flavors and a pleasing sour pop.

Originally created for the Avery Invitational Small Batch Challenge, this juicy and tart ale packed with forbidden fruits has generated a fervent following amongst Avery loyalists. At 6.5% ABV, this temptingly tart ale will guide beer drinkers to the celestial plane of true barrel-aged sours.

Pomona will be distributed in six-packs of 12-ounce cans beginning in late August. Find Pomona near you with Avery’s brew finder: http://www.averybrewing.com/brew-finder

About Avery Brewing Company: A Colorado-based brewery for over 25 years, Avery Brewing has a singular focus on creating the perfect beer. In a world full of discord, Avery believes that a singular dedication to something as seemingly simple and inconsequential as beer can transform the world. Avery Brewing exists to pursue the mastery of beer and to reveal its power. Standouts include White Rascal Belgian-Style White Ale, a remarkable selection of IPAs, including The Maharaja Imperial IPA, and Barrel-Aged 16ers like Vanilla Bean Stout. Discover what great beer can do to your world. Beer First. The Rest Will Follow. Learn more at www.averybrewing.com.

Media Contact: Krista St. Charles, Communications Coordinator, krista@averybrewing.com

Avery Brewing Co. Launches Six-Pack Barrel-Aged Tart Ale was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Our New Tap Room and Restaurant Hours:

Mondays and Tuesdays: CLOSED

Wednesdays and Thursdays: 3:00pm — 9:00pm

Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays: 11:30am — 9:00pm

Our Space:

We are lucky to have a large patio space, and we’re grateful that we have the chance to expand that patio space this summer. We’ll have plenty of outdoor seating options on our patio and front lawn in addition to our inside tables.

Dogs:

Well-behaved, leashed dogs are still welcome on both our patio and lawn.

Beer To-Go:

In addition to in-person dining, we’re continuing to offer curbside service and delivery. Beer and food to-go will be available through our online store. Anyone who would prefer to enjoy Avery beers at home can take advantage of this option! You can order online here.

Thank You!

Most importantly, we can’t thank you all enough for your continuous support through this difficult time. We’re so lucky to have you all, and we’re grateful beyond words that we can share a beer with you all again. Much love and many, many thanks!

Health and Safety of Our Guests and Employees was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Grab your flip flops and your favorite Hawaiian shirt, because №58 in our barrel-aged series is ready for the beach. Inspired by our love for all things tiki drinks, Quinntiki is an Imperial Blonde Ale aged in rum barrels with pineapple, coconut, orange, and nutmeg.

As a brewer, I’m always looking for new flavors and inspirations from anything and everything. Recently, my brewing industry friends and I have been exploring the world of tiki drinks. We’re always on the hunt for new tiki bars in Colorado and new cocktail concoctions.

While doing some research (of both the reading and the drinking variety), I came across a book called Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki. This book is packed with the history behind tiki culture and rum, along with hundreds of drink recipes.

Using those recipes as inspiration, I started playing around with the flavors of great tiki drinks in our beers. Quinntiki, now № 58 in our barrel-aged series, is my favorite creation from this endeavor.

For Quinntiki, the goal was to brew a big blonde beer that would lend itself well to rum barrel-aging and infusions of island fruits and spices. We wanted to make this a high ABV beer since that’s just what we do here, but also because tiki cocktails are usually high in alcohol.

Quinntiki comes in at 16.2% ABV. This tribute to the world of tiki will be available in the Avery Tap Room and Restaurant and in select liquor stores across Colorado beginning in late June.

So let’s raise a glass to Mr. Donn Beach, the father of tiki culture, as the cool night breeze rolls in. We hope wherever you are you feel the sand between your toes.

Learn more about our Barrel-Aged Series here: https://www.averybrewing.com/beers/barrel-aged-series

Barrel-Aged Series № 58: Quinntiki was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Boulder, Colo. — June 10, 2020 — Avery Brewing Company announces the reopening of their Tap Room and Restaurant for in-person dining on Wednesday, June 24. The Avery team is working hard to set up a successful and safe experience for everyone.

“We want to make sure that we’re reopening safely. When we reopen, we’ll have new Tap Room and Restaurant procedures that we’ll be following to ensure the safest possible experience for everyone,” says Ray Decker, Director of Hospitality at Avery. “In the coming weeks, we’ll be getting our staff and space ready to offer the full Avery experience, while following the state’s new health and distancing recommendations.”

In addition to an updated layout to increase table spacing inside the restaurant, Avery will expand their patio space, allowing additional outdoor seating options for guests on both their patio and lawn. Avery will also introduce a new food menu to compliment 30+ Tap Room Rarities and Avery classics on tap. Curbside pickup service will continue, with beer and food to-go available for online order. Customers can order online here.

The entire Avery team appreciates the ongoing support of all their fans and neighbors through this difficult time. “We are beyond thankful for everyone’s support and compassion over the last couple of months, and can’t wait to share our beer, food, and love again,” Decker says.

More details on Tap Room and Restaurant hours and reopening procedures will be shared on Avery’s blog in the coming weeks. Stay up to date with Avery’s reopening plan here.

About Avery Brewing Company: A Colorado-based brewery for over 25 years, Avery Brewing has a singular focus on creating the perfect beer. In a world full of discord, Avery believes that a singular dedication to something as seemingly simple and inconsequential as beer can transform the world. Avery Brewing exists to pursue the mastery of beer and to reveal its power. Standouts include White Rascal Belgian-Style White Ale, a remarkable selection of IPAs, including The Maharaja Imperial IPA, and Barrel-Aged 16ers like Vanilla Bean Stout. Discover what great beer can do to your world.Beer First. The Rest Will Follow. Learn more at www.averybrewing.com.

Media Contact: Krista St. Charles, Communications Coordinator, krista@averybrewing.com

Avery Tap Room and Restaurant Announces June 24th Reopening was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Andy Parker, Avery’s Chief Barrel Herder

Today is the day to shine the spotlight on the Avery staff’s favorite morning beer, the awkwardly named Liliko’i Kepolo (lil-uh-koi kuh-poe-low). Join me as we relive its ten-year history, share why it took so long to put it into cans, and discuss how it’s changed over the years.

While Avery Brewing Company started in 1993, we didn’t get a tasting room until much later. From 2000 to 2003, we had a kegerator with four taps in the brewhouse, and if you happened to stop by and a brewer happened to have the time, they might pour you a beer while they worked. Somewhere around 2003 we turned one of our three offices into a slightly more official operation. A couple of evenings each week, you could walk in and try some four-ounce samples of free beer. We loved the idea of giving out free beer, but we also had a lot of local fans asking us if they could buy a pint and sit down with their friends. We kept expanding and a few years later (in 2007 or so) we opened an actual Avery Tap Room with ten taps and a handful of tables. Soon that expanded to twenty taps and enough seating for around 75 people.

Sure, it was entertaining to have a busy bar hidden in the back of an industrial complex and only a tiny sign out front. More importantly for the experimental-minded brewers at Avery, it meant opportunities to fill those taps with new projects and pilot batches. For years that tap room was the only place to try dry hopped versions of our IPAs, random one-offs, and the small projects coming our nascent barrel-aging program. And for around five years it was the only place to taste Liliko’i Kepolo.

The origin story of Liliko’i Kepolo begins even further back in time. Back in good ol’ 2000, a young Andy Parker (that’s me!) was lucky enough to get an offer for his first job in the beer industry. He was one of three full time employees at the tiny Kona Brewing Company on the Big Island of Hawaii. At the time he was a young beer snob who thought he knew everything. Stouts and barleywines were badass. Pilsners and fruity beers were for rookies. But in his first week at work, one of the other employees recommended a pau hana (done with work) beer called Liliko’i Wheat. It was an American wheat beer with liliko’i, which is Hawaiian for passion fruit and a common ingredient in tropical regions. Our young Andy Parker was skeptical, thinking that it would be a sweetened fruit beer, only to find that passion fruit is slightly acidic and adds a tinge of tartness to the beer. It smelled delicious, it tasted delicious, and soon he was putting passion fruit on everything he could.

While brainstorming new beers to make for the Avery Tap Room ten years later, I thought back to that memorable experience on a Hawaiian patio and figured we should try to make a wheat beer with passion fruit just like that. But instead of using an essentially neutral base beer, I thought we should try something more flavorful. I decided to use White Rascal, our rapidly growing Belgian White Ale.

Then the challenge was finding a source of passion fruit in the middle of the country. Whole fruit is not a great option because liliko’i is mostly seeds and almost no pulp. When you pick one off a vine in Hawaii you frequently cut through the rind and extract a small amount of juice, then discard the rest. So, I searched for months to find a passion fruit concentrate or juice that matched my memories of the fresh fruit of Hawaii. When I found a consistent supplier, I started ordering small canisters and adding that concentrate directly to individual kegs, usually two at a time. Finally, in early 2010 Avery put the first kegs of Liliko’i on tap in the back of the alley and it immediately became one of the top three sellers. Beer fans were driving half an hour from Denver just to try it. Soon enough we started requesting that fruit in custom five-gallon buckets and we began making small tanks (equivalent to 40 kegs at a time) of Liliko’i Kepolo, the passion fruit devil. A massively fruit forward tart beer with some clove and banana aromas from the base beer.

People were requesting to take Liliko’i Kepolo home every day, so why weren’t we bottling or canning it? For the simple reason that we couldn’t guarantee the quality of that beer in a take home package. White Rascal has a small amount of live yeast in every bottle and keg. It’s a crucial aspect of a traditional Belgian White Ale. Then for Liliko’i Kepolo we added fruit directly to the beer, and that means potentially fermentable sugars. If you combine live yeast with sugar you are likely to end up with fermentation, which could have meant bottles and cans exploding in the market. And while a beer shower sounds alright at first, the shards of glass are slightly less cool. There are ways around this, such as filtering out all of the yeast, waiting longer for a secondary fruit fermentation, and pasteurizing the beer, but we were not equipped for any of these things and we wanted to keep that huge fruit flavor. So, we decided to just make the beer in kegs and keep them in-house where we could keep an eye on them. The one exception was when we made a handful of cases in order to enter it into the Great American Beer Festival, where it won a bronze.

Five years later we were moving out of our alley location and into a brand-new brewery on the north side of Boulder. We spent years planning that brewery out, and there were two big questions we needed to answer. First, how could we get Liliko’i Kepolo into a package and keep that fruit flavor? And second, how could we guarantee that our barrel-aged beers would be as delicious in stores as they were in our brewery? Our barrel-aging program was expanding rapidly, but a few years back we had to recall a barrel-aged beer that picked up some unwanted yeast and bacteria from the barrels. The answer to both was a tool that had been kind of a dirty word in the craft beer world. Pasteurization.

Over the last ten years the practice of aging beer in oak barrels had gone through a massive resurgence, but every time you age a beer in an oak barrel, you’re embracing chaos. You can’t sanitize those barrels fully, and many small brewers accidentally released infected beer. We’d already been through one small recall of bottles, and soon some of the larger barrel aging facilities faced recalls of their own. Several of them started researching pasteurization techniques. As we experimented, we found that pasteurization only changed the flavor of certain types of beer, and in blind taste tests our highly trained panelists could not distinguish between pasteurized and non-pasteurized versions of barrel-aged beers or Liliko’i Kepolo. And since those were the only beers we wanted to pasteurize, that new tool would allow us to get our passion fruit devil out into the market.

This meant we also had to start sourcing larger amounts of passion fruit concentrate, and after months of searching for an authentic source, it began arriving in 50-gallon drums. Considering how little juice is in a single liliko’i, it was a little mind-boggling. But there were still some issues. Fruit was sedimenting out in kegs of this unfiltered monster. We’re always trying to improve all of our established beers, as we don’t feel like the perfect beer truly exists, only the pursuit of it. And one thing we realized about a year ago is that while we’re proud of this beer and we love it, there are very few people on the Avery team who would ever drink more than one in a sitting. The massive amount of fruit concentrate resulted in a rich mouthfeel that made us all want something less fatiguing for our second pint. We also found that despite our vetting processes there was some fluctuation in the flavor of our passion fruit concentrate. Sometimes it would taste more like peach or apricot than that vibrant pineapple and lemon mix.

We went back into research mode, and after six months of experimentation we made a recipe change. We recently replaced that concentrate with a passion fruit juice. This seemingly small alteration has meant a much more vibrant passion fruit aroma that reminds me of picking fresh fruit off the vines in Hawaii. And since there’s less actual fruit pulp in the beer it’s absurdly drinkable. Now many of us are taking six packs of it home instead of just having the occasional pint. The improved version is out in many stores now, so go grab a sixer with the knowledge that you might put it down in one sitting. That would mean going back out for more.

Better grab two sixers just to be safe.

The History of Liliko’i Kepolo was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Over the last twenty years we’ve received quite a bit of media attention for our experimental barrel-aging program, but it just so happens that our biggest sellers are rooted in tradition. That includes White Rascal, our Belgian-style White Ale (a.k.a. Witbier). And even though this particular style of beer has seen a worldwide resurgence over the last twenty years, and we’ve been making White Rascal for over fifteen, there’s a bit of confusion over what a Belgian-style White Ale is. This seems like the perfect time for a brief history of how an old-world traditional beer became a new world rock star, what goes into making it, and what it should taste like.

What is a Belgian White Ale/Witbier?

The traditional witbier is made from 50% malted barley and 50% unmalted wheat, uses only a small amount of hops for a light bitterness, and is spiced with orange peel and coriander. Most importantly, it is fermented with one of the recognized Belgian White yeast strains. These strains have been preserved over the years to create the signature aromas and flavors that define the style, primarily clove (4-vinyl-guaiacol) and banana (isoamyl acetate). A wee bit of that delicious yeast is left in the finished beer and the wheat contributes to the hazy white appearance. It’s notable that wheat on its own doesn’t contribute significantly to a beer’s flavor; it just so happens that certain flavorful yeast strains are frequently used with beers that have high wheat content.

With that said, many breweries have put their own spins on the Belgian White style. Some use malted wheat instead of unmalted. Some add oats for a silkier mouthfeel. Some use heavier or lighter spicing. Some add different spices that work well with the flavors derived from this yeast, such as lemongrass, cumin, cardamom, grapefruit peel, and so forth.

History

We know that the Belgian White/witbier style has been around for hundreds of years, but its popularity in Belgium declined after 1900. In the 1950’s the last commercial witbier maker in Belgium closed its doors in the town of Hoegaarden. Fortunately for us, a milkman named Pierre Celis had worked in one of the witbier breweries in that town and had enough knowledge of the style to start his own brewery in the 1960s. He named it Hoegaarden, and soon the style regained some popularity as their flagship beer shipped all over Europe. Hoegaarden soon became the gold standard of Belgian White Ales, though unfortunately the brewery burned to the ground in 1985. Pierre had to sell the rights of the beer to Interbrew, now known as AB-Inbev, who makes it to this day.

Since Pierre couldn’t make his witbier under the Hoegaarden name anymore, he started Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas. This was in 1992, when only a handful of craft breweries existed. He was making top tier beer and winning multiple medals in the early iterations of the Great American Beer Festival. Young craft beer drinkers talked about Celis White and Celis Grand Cru in hushed tones. Yet financially, Celis Brewery struggled, and they ended up selling the rights to Miller in 1995, who ended up closing the brewery and selling the rights six years later. The new owner was Michigan Brewing Company, who made Celis beers until they closed in 2012. In a final dramatic move, Pierre’s daughter Christine Celis bought the rights back and opened up a new Celis facility in Austin in 2017, where it continues to make their classic White as well as many new varieties.

Through all this, Belgian Whites did not fizzle out. Coors took notice and started making Blue Moon in 1995, and while it isn’t completely faithful to the traditional style, it has certainly raised the world’s awareness that these beers are out there. That awareness has helped to create a market where beers like White Rascal, Allagash White (Portland, Maine), Ommegang Witte, and the OG Hoegaarden can thrive.

History of White Rascal

Waaaaaaay back in 2003, Avery was making less than 5,000 barrels of beer each year and a good portion of that was Avery IPA. One day Adam Avery brought up the idea of making a Belgian White: a refreshing, flavorful style that very few American breweries were making at the time. Coors didn’t start making Blue Moon until 1995, same with Allagash, and the latter’s beer could only really be found in the northeast. We didn’t know if there would be a market for a traditional Belgian White, so we thought we’d start it out as a seasonal and did the standard brainstorming on names. Adam’s father Larry suggested Cloud Nine because of the hazy white appearance, but Adam’s idea of White Rascal and the mischievous devil won out. And when the first release of the beer flew off the shelves, we decided to make it full time. Within two years it was our second-best seller and eventually it overtook Avery IPA.

In trying to make the flavor profile true-to-style, White Rascal uses the commercially available version of the Hoegaarden yeast, as a balance of those yeast-derived clove and banana flavors are essential. We chose to use 50% malted wheat instead of unmalted because we felt that the wheat component itself contributed more to the light mouthfeel than the flavor and we knew our antiquated brew system could handle it. Then in the whirlpool we added freshly ground coriander as well as a blend of dried sweet orange peel for a moderate citrus aroma and a little dried Curaçao orange peel for a hint of bitterness.

While White Rascal sold well and helped fuel our growth, it wasn’t doing very well in the larger beer competitions. The most frequent criticism was that it was a little heavier on the spices than a traditional Belgian White. That changed in 2012 when White Rascal won a silver at the Great American Beer Festival, then again in 2015. Over the years, American brewers had developed a number of excellent witbiers and the boundaries of the category expanded a little to embrace more intensity of flavor. As such, great wits by Avery, Allagash, Ommegang, and Boulevard were winning multiple awards with their consistent takes on the style. And at the 2018 World Beer Cup White Rascal earned a silver medal with Hoegaarden taking a bronze, which was a huge testament to the amount of work we’d put into this beer over fifteen years. It’s always fun to win a medal at one of these competitions but winning multiple awards for the same beer is immensely satisfying for a professional beermaker. That doesn’t happen by accident.

White Rascal’s bottles and cans have gone through a couple of changes, and the original label’s devil bears more than a small resemblance to the design of the French aperitif Maurin Quina. Way back in 2003 we didn’t have a graphic designer. Obviously. A few years ago, we revamped all of our packaging and the Rascal on our cans and bottles these days looks a lot happier.

One last note… many beer drinkers associate a slice of orange on the rim of the glass with Belgian White Ales. That’s mainly from an advertising push by Coors and Blue Moon, but it’s purely optional. If you prefer a slice of orange, go ahead and use it to fight off scurvy. Personally, I don’t want that orange covering up any of the aromas and flavors we’ve worked so hard to put into White Rascal. Unless it’s time for a deliciously delicious Sunday morning beermosa, of course.

Cheers!

A Brief History of Belgian White Ales and White Rascal was originally published in averybrewingco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.