It all started with Pit and the Pendulum, SweetWater’s peach fruited wild ale. What was supposed to scratch an itch for funky brewing, blew the door wide open for The Woodlands.
Coming in January is SweetWater’s Through the Brambles, the first release from the completed Woodlands Project. The inaugural release is nothing short of fantastic. Fresh raspberries were added to a light sour base (one of which will serve as the brewery’s “mother” beer), in oak barrels.
In place now are 500 oak barrels ranging from red wine to rum and bourbon, 15 puncheons (larger wine casks), and six oak foudres. The 37,000 square foot facility signals a new era of sophistication for the brewery.
Get to know this names if you don’t know them already. Mark Medlin, Troy Montrone, and Chris Meadows. That is the funky bunch that is making Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces, oak and fruit, work for tastebuds affections. Once you taste Through the Brambles, you’ll find out they are off to one hell of a great start.
The Woodlands will be open to the public in January, 2017.
-
- Foudres just inside the main entrance.
-
- View of the facility from the front.
-
- That’s not a nightclub. That’s the bar at The Woodlands.
-
- SweetWater Bourbon Barrel Aged Coffee Stout. It’s not wild but still a tasty and a future potential bottle release.
-
- 500 oak barrels. Soon to be triple decked.
-
- Oak on oak.
-
- Woodinville Rye Whiskey barrels. (Woodinville, WA)
-
- Heaven Hill. If you know bourbon you know this distillery.
-
- L-R: Chris Meadows, Troy Montrone, Mark Medlin.
-
- Spiders are a barrelhouse’s best friend.
-
- You don’t build a new multi-million dollar sour facility without sexy new glassware.
-
- SweetWater’s Troy Montrone.
-
- Chris “MF” Meadows, SweetWater brewer.
-
- SweetWater Through the Brambles, with more barrels in the background.
-
- Brett C & Pedio at play.
-
- 500 barrels in place. Another 1,000 on the way.
-
- First bottles of Through the Brambles, raspberry sour ale.
-
- The U.S. Government will never allow this name on a label. Just enjoy it here.
-
- That’s not a nightclub. That’s the bar at The Woodlands.
-
- Puncheons.
-
- The glow of Through the Brambles.
