This weekend, Wicked Weed in Asheville, NC was releasing a new beer- Red Angel, a sour ale brewed with raspberries and aged in red wine barrels. My boyfriend and I attended the bottle pre-sale release on Saturday at the brewery's second facility, the Funkatorium.
I've been to Wicked Weed at least 8 times since I turned 21. Their brewery is a beautiful shining beacon of ingenuity and craft in the beer industry. The brewery began as a brewpub and has been open for only two years, but in that time they have opened two taproom and beer making facilities, broken ground on a third facility, and began distributing their beers in the state of North Carolina.
A day at either of their facilities is full of a Baskin Robins-esqu selection of craft beer to drink (all made with fresh ingredients in house by Wicked Weed) and a fantastic menu of food and nibbles. Their traditional styles of beer (your IPAs, ales, stouts, and porters) are brewed and sold at the main Wicked Weed facility, while their sour program is located a couple blocks away at the Funkatorium. Here, they make and store their many sour beers, ensuring that there is no cross contamination of the yeast strains between the funky junk and the regular cast of beers.
The front of the Funkatorium is a taproom, while the warehouse in the back is allocated to barrel storage and production. Patrons can walk down a roped off path through the barrel room on their way to the restroom, eyeing the aging beers right next to them.
It's not uncommon to hear patrons joking about wanting to
steal a barrel and just roll it down the street.
During my own jaunt to the loo, I noticed that many of their barrels used for aging are made of French oak. I asked our waitress, who has ben with the small brewery since its creation, whether that was a deliberate choice over American oak. She said that their barrel selection is made primarily by what type of alcohol was in the barrel previously, be it red or white wine, cognac, rum, tequila, etc, and not much thought is given to the type of wood the barrel is made out of.
Unfortunately, the head brewer, Walt, had already come and chatted with my table before I had this question in mind, but I would've asked him whether the type of grape aged in their wine barrels played into his decision to age a beer in it. Wouldn't aging a cherry sour be more appropriate in a barrel that previously held Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec, rather than Pinotage? I feel like the barrel's previous inhabitants should play a huge role in barrel aging beers.
Everyone on staff at Wicked Weed is knowledgable about the facility and program. The attitude of the brewery is one of a big large family that loves to work together. Even their new Social Media and Marketing employee, Jordan, who has only been with the brewery a few months, feels the love. He and I spoke about the Funkatorium, and he was knowledgable and helpful when answering all of my questions.
Most of the beers at the Funkatorium are aged in oak barrels, while some are fermented and aged in steel. There's a large oak vat in the corner of the warehouse, called a Foeder, that is used during fermentation. It stands upright, rather than on its side, which allows more oak flavor to get into the beer. Currently, the facility has around 300 barrels aging its different beers, but capacity is set at around 500.
They recently broke ground on a third facility, which will expand their production and distribution lines dramatically. Currently, Wicked Weed only bottles its sour beers. Some get distributed to local bottle shops, but most sales of bottles happen at the brewery. The bottles are gorgeous- 12 oz bombers with beautiful label art. Even the paper chosen for the label is nice and glossy. These little things make their product stand out above all the rest.
The new facility will fully service the state of North Carolina and then allow for distribution to other states. Don't worry, I put in a good word for Blacksburg. Phase 2 of construction at the new warehouse will include a third taproom and more storage for their barrel program.
Luke and Walt, the had brewers at Wicked Weed, have created a gem in the mountains. Their beers are winning medals and awards and pleasing the palates of those who drink them. Their release parties for special brews are a great time and well populated, and the energy is always positive.
This release party was for Red Angel, a variant of their regular Black Angel cherry sour. The two beers use the same base sour and production and fermentation process, but different fruits and barrels. Black Angel is brewed with cherries and aged in bourbon barrels, while Red Angel is brewed with raspberries and aged in red wine barrels. During the year, three other "Angel" beers will be released, completing the series: Gold Angel (apricots), White Angel (wild tart grapes) and Angel of Darkness (boysenberry, blueberry, raspberry, and cherry). Angel of Darkness will be aged in Portuguese sherry casks.
I was lucky enough to speak to Walt about the new brew. Red Angel was served to the masses in a white wine glass, which let the raspberry bouquet shine. It's the most well balanced sour I've ever had of theirs- it was not pungent and overbearing, but rather mellow and crisply tart, with strong fruit flavors and a nice breadiness that lingered on the mid palate. Walt let us know that the "literal ton of raspberries" were introduced to the brew during its second fermentation process. This let the fruit mix better with their strain of Brettanomyces yeast and give the finished product a better, less forceful punch. Once this batch is out of the barrels, they will begin production on next year's Red Angel, which will age for a total of 12 months. It's a quick turnaround cycle, with a batch of Red Angel in barrels for the majority of any given year.
The Funkatorium is a quiet place. The warehouse echoes your steps as you walk past the sleeping beers in their barrel bunk beds. Jordan shared that the excitement about a new sour brew has to wait once fermentation wraps up, because the beer then needs to go age in its barrel for months on end. The energy picks right back up once it's bottling and tapping time, but until then, you just walk through the stacks and wonder what the beers are dreaming of.
