Jester King Brewery Bière de Merlot

Originally released in 2014, Bière de Merlot is a blend of barrel-aged wild ale re-fermented with Texas-grown Merlot grapes from Sulphur Bluff, TX. The quality of the Merlot grapes we received this year was absolutely outstanding. We basically just got out of their way and let them express themselves through the beauty of natural/wild fermentation. We created a soft, drinkable blend of barrel-aged beer, processed the grapes in-house at Jester King, and added them to the beer at a ratio of about 5 pounds per gallon. We let the grapes ferment to total dryness with native yeast in the beer and on the skins of the grapes. We then naturally conditioned the beer in bottles and kegs.