Double Rainbow Beer Interview

One of the most anticipated beer happenings of Colorado Springs is coming up this Friday. At Trinity Brewing you will be able to pick up bottles of the Black Fox/Trinity collaborative beer Double Rainbow, inspired by the Double Rainbow Video. Each person will be limited to 6 bottles, only 500 were made, and they won't be making it again. To whet your appetite, and to just find out a little more about this really unique beer came together, I decided to ask John Schneider of Black Fox and Jason Yester of Trinity Brewing a few questions. John's answers are in this brownish color and Jason's answers are in blue:

How did the idea for the Double Rainbow beer come about?

Jason (Brewer at Trinity) is the person who brought about the idea that we should do a collaboration. We worked together at Bristol for 3.5 - 4 years. Jason was my boss and is my brewing mentor. He brought up the idea of collaboration when it was at the time when the Double Rainbow video was getting big on Youtube. We were at a Saison pairing dinner at A Second Cup/Another Pint in Gleneagle. It was Black Fox and Trinity beers. We were talking about the collaboration and 'joked' about naming the beer Double Rainbow. Plus my wife and I saw a double rainbow on the way to the dinner! Crazy. We decided to use an ingredient for every color of the rainbow (7 colors) - twice. Some were fermentables and some for flavor. 

You joked about naming the beer Double Rainbow, but was it that night  that you knew this would be the beer you would work on? Or did you determine that later?

When I make up my mind to do something, I usually go for it. I called John the next day and we met to figure out the recipe two days after the initial idea...Brewing together in the past and having similar approaches/inspirations with our love for saisons set the stage nicely to work on this collaborative project.

Normally Black Fox brews over at Bristol, did you brew this beer at Trinity? What are some of the major differences? How was the experience?

I actually did go over to Trinity and we brewed the beer there. I was a guest brewer so it was Jason, Darren, Joe and myself that all took part in the brewing festivities that day. The experience was fun as hell! I was brewing with my friends. We have also worked together in the past in varying combos. One big difference in the brewing systems is that Trinity has a steam jacketed mash tun which is nice for different rests/temps.

How were the ingredients decided? In terms of non-traditional ingredients you used two for each color of the rainbow: Red: saffron and rose hips; Orange: pumpkin and tangerine zest; Yellow: turmeric and honey; Green: green peppercorns and parsley Blue: blue corn and agave nectar; Purple: purple barley and raisened Shiraz or Syrah varietal grapes; Violet: violet blossums, torch roasted eggplant.

We focused on not making a beer that turned out "fruity," the main goal was a complex layering and balance of all flavors involved. We also wanted to do something that "no one to our knowledge" has ever done...make a beer with 18 different ingredients (that's 14 nontraditional). So, putting those two ideas together became the real challenge for us...we happen to like challenges as we like to brew "beers for the brain" that make you think while you drink :)

Here are some Facts:
1. Five distinct families of Fermentables added for ABV/unique Flavor:  Honey (meade), Corn (liqours), Agave Nectar (tequllia), Raisin-ed Syrah Grapes (wine), Barley (beer)

2. Our largest adjunct addition were the Syrah Raisins. By mincing that fruit up as small as we could we were able to really drive up the 'wine tannin' character present in this beer (keep in mind we were trying to avoid this beer becoming "fruity" so going for tannins helped with the bitterness of this beer, and also gave it a distinct bitter wine character).

3.  All of the color to this Burgundy appearing beer came from the addition of adjuncts, we added no color to it through grain (how normal beers get color).

4.  Making a 14% ABV beer and keeping the body light/dry is tough as hell to do!... Specially on a Saison

5. We used a sake fermentation procedure for this beer...a procedure I (Jason) haven't used since the Bristol Warlock XXX. 

Did you have any expectations for the beer? I'm sure you've been tasting it along the way, what can you tell us about it (without giving away too much)?

My expectations for any of the beers that I do are simple: I hope that they are palatable. We (Black Fox & Trinity) use a few off the wall ingredients. Some are flavors that could easily overpower and get out of hand. Some of which are things we have never used before on any brewing level. But that's the fun of brewing, specially for an artistic style like Saison. This (Double Rainbow) beer had 14 non-traditional ingredients. I don't like to describe beers before others have tried them. I like them to go in fresh. Everybody's palate is different. And, with a beer this complex, everyone will taste something different. 

Has this specific beer helped inspire future ideas for other beers? If so, what might be coming?

There is some talk about doing a counter/progressive-culture inspired collaboration annually... you'll just have to wait to see what we come up with.  However, if we can pull it off, if you collect all the collaborations we do, in 10 years you will literally be able to go through the bottles and see the documentation of a decade of counter-culture.