Bottling Day Hangout & Upcoming Collaboration: Shady Oak Barrel House!

Shady Oak Barrel House, located North of San Francisco in Santa Rosa CA, has been making some fantastic beers for fans of brettanomyces and mixed culture funky aromatics. 100% of these beers are aged in barrels and contain a variety of yeast and bacteria, creating unique flavors and aromas. Inspired by traditional European farmhouse ales, these beers often utilize fruits and spices and are fully attenuated with a dry finish.

We had the pleasure of joining this one man operation (Steve Doty, who comes from a wine background) and a group of volunteers earlier this month on a warm Sonoma County summer day to see how he bottles his creations while lending a hand.

Unlike the fully automated bottling lines you might see at your large craft breweries pumping out thousands of force carbonated six packs for mass distribution, We worked with a small mobile bottling line and depended on the beer conditioning and carbonating naturally in the bottle, a process Steve will check on over time before releasing to his accounts. 

Steve's commitment to quality, traditional methods, and small batch experimentation is exactly what attracts us at AltBrau to beer. So... we were very excited when Steve agreed to collaborate with us on a beer to be released later this summer.

With the help of our friend Craig from City Beer Store (SF) we selected a large barrel and experimented with a variety of spices and other potential additions. More info will be released soon on what we chose and where the beer will be availble so stay tuned and be sure to follow our Instagram account.

Thank you very much to all the volunteers and most of all to Steve Doty for having us and working with us on one of our next releases.