Buoy Beer to Launch New Foeder Beer Series In January 2019

Last year Buoy Beer purchased a 60-barrel foeder from The Commons Brewery as it closed down its operations. Now the Astoria based brewery will release its first beers that have been aged in this foeder this month.

This coming Saturday, Buoy Beer will release Brett Saison, a blend of three saisons and Dry-Hopped Brett Saison with Azacca, El Dorado, and Meridian hops. Brett Saison features pilsner, wheat, Vienna, and buckwheat malts in addition to Oregon-grown Meridian hops. These hops are layered throughout and bring forth citrus zest from lemons, oranges, and grapefruits that were steeped in the whirlpool.

Buoy will also release Brett Saison with Cranberries as it will spend a couple extra months in wine barrels with Starvation Alley cranberries before being released. All three saisons were originally fermented in stainless and one of them was acidified with lactobacillus. Once combined in the Foeder, the beer was inoculated with our blend of Brettanomyces and left to age for 10 months.

This 60-barrel foeder has a lot of mileage on it. Prior to The Commons Brewery using it, it was up in Alaska at Anchorage Brewing. The Foeder addition was welcomed by the Buoy brewers, who are excited to expand the styles brewed and create unique beers with classical methods.

“Our Foeder has a lot of history to it and we are honored to be able to continue making beer with it,” said Kevin Shaw, Head Brewer in a statement. “This Foeder project has been a lot of fun because it is different than most everything else we have done at the brewery so far. It has been the chance to step outside the box a bit and try something different. We are all very proud of what we created.”

This marks the second specialty bottle release by Buoy Beer Company and the continued use of their specialty bottle label. A departure from their classic logo-centric year-round and seasonal labels, the specialty label artwork incorporates artwork from Pacific Northwest artists. The Brett Saison label artwork was created by Ashley Montangue, an artist from Portland. The label depicts an octopus pouring himself a beer from the Foeder.

“We were excited to incorporate Ashley’s art into these bottles,” said Jessyka Dart-Mclean, Marketing Manager in a statement. “Ashley has been doing live art at our annual Red, White & Buoy event for the past 4 years. His artwork is all over our restaurant wall so it seemed fitting to include him.”

The Brett Saison and Dry-Hopped Brett Saison will be released in 500mL bottles and on draft at Buoy on January 12th. Belmont Station and Corvallis Brew Supply will release the bottles on January 18th. These beers will also be in limited distribution throughout Oregon and Washington.