This Thursday, December 19th when our kitchen and tasting room open at 4pm, we're pleased to introduce Jester King Less Dots! Less Dots is a farmhouse ale aged on the "spent" black currants from Jester King More Dots.

Less Dots joins Detritivore (cherries), La Vie en Rose (raspberries), Demitone (blueberries), Grim Harvest (blackberries), and Aurastone (peaches and apricots) as our "spent" fruit beers.

Less Dots is 5.7% ABV, 15 IBU, 3.3 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 1.002 (0.5 Plato). It was packaged in October in kegs and bottles and 100% naturally conditioned through bottle refermentation. It will be available by the glass and in bottles to go (750ml/$18). We have 948 bottles available with a bottle limit of four. We don't anticipate Less Dots being distributed beyond Jester King.

Cheers and we hope you enjoy this new beer from us!

Artwork by Josh Cockrell

Photography by Granger Coats

We're very pleased and excited to introduce Jester King Unfiltered Pilsner!

Unfiltered Pilsner is a single decoction, German-inspired Pilsner brewed with Hill Country well water, Blacklands Pilsner malt, a touch of raw grains from Barton Springs Mill, and German Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hops. It was lagered for five weeks in a horizontal dairy tank at Jester King prior to kegging.

We’ve had a deep love and appreciation for pale lagers for a long time, particularly the unfiltered ones from the Franconian region of Germany, which serve as inspiration for this beer. The soft texture, yeasty-cloudiness, and gentle hop haze of these beers is something we’ve greatly enjoyed, and at times craved, here at Jester King. Over the years, we’re lucky to have received gravity kegs of unfiltered Franconian lager from our friends at Shelton Brothers to serve in our tasting room. Our goal was to do this tradition justice, while making a beer firmly rooted in our own Hill Country environment.

Jester King Unfiltered Pilsner will be released today (December 13th) when our kitchen and tasting room open at 4pm. Batch 1 is draft only and will only be available by the glass. Below are some details/specs about the beer and recipe. Cheers!

We're pleased to introduce Agresto – brewed in collaboration with Birrificio Italiano!

Agresto is a barrel-aged farmhouse ale brewed with wild Italian fennel flower, black pepper, and refermented with Texas-grown unripe Black Spanish grapes. Agresto shares its name with a Tuscan condiment, popular during the Renaissance, that was made by farmers during the grape growing season from unripe grapes, herbs and spices. Birrificio Italiano first brought Agresto to beer in 2015 at their Klanbarrique Woodworks under the name Malmadura. Our shared creation expands this idea with the marriage of Italian wild fennel flowers, black pepper, and foot-stomped, unripe Black Spanish grapes from Texas. After primary fermentation with indigenous yeast from the grape skins and our mixed culture, Agresto was sent to neutral oak for a year of maturation.

Agresto was brewed in August of 2018 and packaged this August. It's unfiltered, unpasteurized, and naturally conditioned through refermentation in bottles and kegs. It's 5.3% alcohol by volume, 10 IBU, 3.4 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 1.000 (0.0 Plato). It will be released at Jester King this Thursday, December 12th at 4pm when our tasting room and kitchen opens. It will be available by the glass and in bottles to go (750ml/$26). There's a three bottle limit. A limited amount of Agesto will be available at Birrificio Italiano in the future.

We're very pleased to introduce Moonshot -- a 100% spontaneously fermented beer with Tennessee oats, rose hips, and lemongrass brewed in collaboration with Yazoo Brewing Company in Nashville!

Back in January of 2017, our long time friend and inspiration Brandon Jones of Yazoo & Embrace the Funk traveled to Austin to brew with us. Brandon's experimentation with wild fermentation and his Embrace the Funk blog helped guide us as we entered the world beyond pure culture brewers yeast during the early part of this decade. To say we were honored and excited to brew with him is an understatement.

For our collaboration, we wanted to pursue 100% spontaneous fermentation. It has been a passion of ours and Brandon's for a long time. Brandon sent us raw Tennessee oats, as well as rose hips and lemongrass from his favorite spice shop. We turbid mashed the oats along with Texas malted barley and raw wheat from Blacklands Malt. We boiled with aged hops from our barn attic and cooled the wort overnight in our coolship. As the wort chilled, we added the herbs to the wort and let them steep overnight. The next morning we racked the wort into barrels for 100% spontaneous fermentation.

This Saturday, December 7th at Noon for SPON Day, we'll be releasing Jester King 2019 SPON Three Year Blend!

2019 SPON Three Year Blend is our blend of 100% spontaneously fermented beer from 2018, 2017, and 2016. To make the beer, we brew with well water, Texas-grown malted barley and raw wheat, and aged hops from the attic of our barn. We let the wort rest overnight in our coolship and collect wild yeast and bacteria from our environment. The next morning we move the wort into oak barrels and allow the beer to 100% spontaneously ferment (no yeast or other microbes pitched). After longterm fermentation and maturation, we create a blend that stretches the course of three years. The blend is then packaged in bottles and kegs and allowed to referment and mature for almost another year before release.

Why do we pursue this process? To us, it's the ultimate partnership between time, place, and people. We're taking one night of the year, one location on the doorstep of the Hill Country, and one group of people to create something that will never exist again. The beer is a unique cross section of these three variables. We believe this special process is worthy of pursuit, not just at Jester King, but all over the world.

Early this week we announced Jester King More Dots -- a barrel aged wild ale refermented with black currants. We took a small portion of the batch prior to refermentation and bottled it still to create what we're simply calling "More Dots Still".

We've experimented with packaging beers still before. By "still", we mean without refermentation in bottles and kegs, which creates naturally occurring CO2 that gives the beer its effervescence. For instance, we've bottled SPON Still, which is inspired by unblended Lambic. Packaging a beer still is an unusual, but not altogether unheard of practice in modern brewing. Some of our close friends in the beer industry have experimented with this technique as well.

Why bottle a beer still? For us, wild fermentation of grains and fruits is not unlike traditional wine making. We're allowing indigenous yeast time and patience to ferment a hybrid of beer and wine to total dryness, and develop interesting flavors and aromas along the way. The result has similarities to wine in many respects, and in our opinion, can be enjoyed still much like one would with wine. Still beer carries a stigma in our experience. But we'd push back against it, especially in this context. If nothing else, the absence of effervesce effects the mouthfeel, aromatics, and sensory perception of the beer, and ultimately the experience of drinking it. We find this fun and fascinating.

On Black Friday at Noon, we're opening up a portion of our beer cellar and making available some special rarities. Please see the list below!

The sale starts at Noon this Friday (11/29). First come, first served. To promote fairness, the limit is six bottles per purchase (with only one of the six bottles being a magnum). However, guests are welcome to make multiple trips through the line while supplies last.

2015 Ol' Oi (24x750ml/$35)

2016 Bière de Blanc du Bois (24x500ml/$29)

2016 Nocturn Chrysalis (24x500ml/$29)

2016 Foudreweizen (18x750ml/$27)

2017 Colour Five (24x500ml/$25)

2017 Omniscience & Proselytism (24x500ml/$25)

2017 La Vie en Rose (24x750ml/$25)

2017 SPON Muscat (48x375ml/$29)

2017 SPON Blueberry Pitaya (36x375ml/$29)

2017 Örter I Mörker (24x750ml/$29)

2017 RU55 (24x750ml/$28)

2017 Viking Metal (24x750ml/$29)

2017 SPON Three Year Blend (6x1.5L Magnum/$120)

2017 SPON Raspberry & Cherry (6x1.5L Magnum/$125)

2017 SPON Peach & Apricot (6x1.5L Magnum/$125)

2018 Sacred Vessel (24x750ml/$29)

2019 Moderne Dansk (36x375ml/$25)

Hope to see you Friday at Noon!

On Black Friday (November 29th) at Noon, we're pleased to release Jester King More Dots -- barrel aged wild ale refermented with black currants!

To make More Dots, we created a blend of Jester King Das Überkind with an average age of around one year. Das Überkind is our un-fruited barrel aged wild ale brewed with well water, local grain, and aged hops, and fermented with our mixed culture of brewers yeast and native yeast and bacteria. We racked Das Überkind out of oak barrels and into a stainless steel tank, then refermented the blend with 2,000 pounds of black currants from Samson Farms in Everson, Washington! After the fruit refermentation reached total dryness, we packaged the beer into bottles and kegs for natural conditioning / refermentation.

More Dots is 5.8% alcohol by volume, 10 IBU, 3.1 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 1.004 (1 Plato). It will be released when our kitchen and tasting room open at Noon on Friday, November 29th (Black Friday). We have about 2,300 bottles available (500ml/$20) with bottle limit of four. More Dots will only be available at Jester King aside from special events. Cheers!

Label art by Josh Cockrell

We're pleased to announce Derpy Citra -- a double dry hopped American pale ale we brewed at Jester King in collaboration with our friends at American Solera!

Derpy Citra is a draft only beer and will only be available at Jester King. It will be released today -- Thursday, November 21st -- when our tasting room and kitchen open at 4pm.

Here are some specs on the beer:

Brew date -- 10/24/19

OG 1.050

FG 1.010

ABV 5.2%

Grains -- malted barley, malted wheat, raw spelt

Hops -- 100% Citra

Yeast -- London III

We want to thank Chase Healey and American Solera for the years of friendship, support, collaboration, and mutual respect. We hope you enjoy!

Artwork by Josh Cockrell

Photography by Granger Coats

Bread making is the most fulfilling work I've ever done. Being given the opportunity to learn from our talented chefs at Jester King Kitchen and share the results of our process with our guests brings me immense happiness. This happiness has inspired me to share our process and philosophy:

This Friday, November 15th at 4pm, we'll be releasing Bière de Syrah Blend 3!

Bière de Syrah is mature barrel aged wild beer refermented with Texas Syrah grapes. We brew wort with well water, local grain from Blacklands Malt, and a blend of fresh and aged hops. We primary ferment the wort in stainless steel before racking to neutral oak for long term maturation (typically around 12 to 18 months). We then crush and de-stem the grapes and add them to the mature beer. After re-fermentation, we naturally condition the beer in bottles and kegs.

Blend 3 is 6.4% alcohol by volume, 8 IBU, 3.5 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 1.000 (0 degrees Plato). It will be released at our tasting room and kitchen at 4pm this Friday. It will be available by the glass and in bottles to go (500ml/$20). We have 1,020 bottles available with a three bottle limit. We do not expect Bière de Syrah Blend 3 to see distribution.

Cheers and Happy Veterans Day to all those who serve / have served!

UPDATE 12/6/19

SPON Day at Jester King is tomorrow at Noon!

It should be warm, sunny weather, so we hope you'll join us for holiday fun and a celebration of spontaneous fermentation!

Here's the rundown:

SPONTANEOUS BEER (by the glass)

2019 Moonshot (collaboration w/ Yazoo)

2019 SPON Three Year Blend

2018 SPON Three Year Blend

2018 SPON Estate Peach

2018 SPON Blueberry & Pitaya

2018 SPON Plum & Nectarine

2018 Elements of Composition

2017 SPON Three Year Blend

2017 SPON Sangiovese & Syrah

2017 SPON Muscat

2017 Wanderflora

SPONTANEOUS BEER (bottles to go)

2019 Moonshot -- 1,700 x 750ml / $28 / limit 4

2019 SPON Three Year Blend -- 831 x 750ml / $36 / limit 1

2019 SPON Three Year Blend -- 2024 x 375ml / $20 / limit 3

2018 SPON Plum & Nectarine -- 24 x 375ml / $29 / limit 1

2018 SPON Raspberry & Cherry -- 84 x 375ml / $29 / limit 1

2017 SPON Three Year Blend -- 10 x 1.5L / $120 / limit 1

2017 SPON Peach & Apricot -- 36 X 375ml / $31 / limit 1

2017 SPON Syrah & Sangiovese – 72 x 375ml / $31 / limit 1

This Friday, November 8th, we're releasing Balcones Whiskey Barrel Aged Montmorency vs. Balaton!

Balcones Whiskey Barrel Aged Montmorency vs. Balaton is our 2019 batch of MvB aged for seven months in Balcones Distillery Baby Blue Whiskey barrels! It will be released at 4pm on the 8th when our tasting room and kitchen opens to the public. It will be available by the glass and in bottles to go. We have 1,128 bottles available (330ml/$14) with a three bottle limit.

Balcones Whiskey Barrel Aged Montmorency vs. Balaton is 9.0% alcohol by volume, 8 IBU, 3.6 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 0.998 specific gravity (-0.5 Plato).

This Thursday at 4pm on Halloween, we're releasing our latest batch of Black Metal Farmhouse Imperial Stout!

Black Metal takes inspiration from both the English and Franco-Belgian brewing traditions. We combine English speciality malts with well water, local base malt from our friends at Blacklands, and wild fermentation with our mixed culture of brewers yeast and native yeast and bacteria.

This batch (no. 21) was brewed in August and is 10.4% alcohol by volume. It will be available by the glass and in bottles to go at our kitchen and tasting room. We have about three-thousand 750ml bottles ($14) and two-hundred and fifty 1.5L magnum bottles ($40). There's no limit on the 750ml bottles. Limit one per person on the magnums. We expect to see limited distro of Black Metal outside our kitchen and tasting room. Cheers!

Today at 4pm, we releasing Coolship Roadtrip -- a 100% spontaneously fermented blend with our friends from American Solera that's nearly four years in the making.

Back on a cold winter night in February of 2016, we filled our coolship with wort, chilled it overnight, drove it all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma the next day, and put it into barrels at Prairie Artisan Ales (now American Solera) for spontaneous fermentation. We then did the whole process in reverse and drove the wort down to Jester King to ferment in our barrels. We called this process "coolship roadtrip", and we've been doing it every year since. Finally, nearly four years later, we're releasing our half of the collaboration at Jester King.

At its core, Coolship Roadtrip is a culture swap based on the concept of microbial terroir. We wanted to take microbes from Texas, send them up the road to Oklahoma, and see what sort of beer they'd produce (and vice versa). The impact that microclimates have on spontaneous fermentation intrigues us and is the philosophical heart of this beer.

But reflecting back on the making of Coolship Roadtrip, we'd say this beer means much more to us than microbial terroir. It's a time capsule of sorts. It signifies friendship, change, and growth over the course of nearly four years. We're happy to reminisce about its creation and finally get to share it.

We're pleased to introduce our newest beer -- Jester King Femme Sauvage!

Brewed in support and with the help of the Pink Boots Society, Femme Savage is a hoppy farmhouse ale dry hopped with Mosaic, Loral, Glacier, Simcoe, and Sabro hops. The hops for the beer were provided by the Pink Boots Society.

Femme Sauvage was inspired by some of our favorite crisp, dry, hoppy Franco-Belgian pale ales. It's 5.2% alcohol, 39 IBU, 4.1 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 1.002 (0.5 Plato). It was brewed with well water, local grain, and hops, fermented with our mixed culture, and naturally conditioned.

The Pink Boots Society was created to "assist, inspire and encourage women beer industry professionals to advance their careers through education." Several of the women at Jester King helped brew and package the beer, and we're pleased to announce that the label artwork was created by Artist Katie Ross of Jester King! This is Katie's first Jester King label design!

Femme Sauvage goes on sale this Thursday, October 17th when our tasting room and kitchen opens at 4pm. It will be available by the glass and in bottles to go (750ml/$15). We have 900 bottles available. There's no bottle limit. $2 off of every onsite bottle sale and $1 off of every onsite glass pour will go to help fund Pink Boots scholarships.

We're excited to release Rare Corals batch 2 this Thursday at 4pm!

Rare Corals is our farmhouse ale fermented with guava, mango, lime juice and zest, toasted coconut, and chamomile!

This is the first batch we've released since the spring of 2017. It's 5.3% alcohol by volume, 18 IBU, 3.8 pH, and has a finishing gravity of 1.006 (1.5 Plato). It was brewed in July with well water, Blacklands Malt Silver Star Texas Two Row, malted wheat, TexMalt Oats, and Fuggle hops. It was fermented with our mixed culture of brewers yeast and native yeast and bacteria, and was packed in September. It was 100% naturally conditioned through refermentation in bottles and kegs.

Rare Corals batch 2 will be released when our tasting room and kitchen opens at 4pm this Thursday, October 17th. It will be available by the glass and in bottles to go. We have about 4,700 bottles available (750ml/$16). There is no bottle limit. We expect a small portion of the batch will see distribution.

Artwork by Josh Cockrell

Photos by Granger Coats

It is homecoming season, as we introduce the new stud to our goat heard! This year, we followed our hearts on this damn fine looking buck with a pleasant demeanor and kind presence. For his name, we have decided on “DJ”, in honor of Daniel Johnston, a shining star of our city who has now passed on.

Based on fertility cycles, we are expecting the first of our babies on Valentine’s Day, 2020, following a 150 day gestation period. With ten does selected, we are expecting 20-25 baby goats throughout February, followed by our annual Doom Metal Goat Yoga series in March. Please come visit our herd by walking our farm trail or going on our farm tour offered every Saturday and Sunday at 2pm and 6pm.

Tickets are on sale for The Goat Mile!

The Goat Mile is a mile run through the hills and trails at Jester King with Farmer Peppy and our goats! It will take place every Saturday and Sunday in October from 11am to Noon.

The hour will consist of 15 minutes of stretching, 30 minutes of running with the goats with stops for calisthenics, and 15 minutes of cool down. Farmer Peppy will have weights available for those wishing to make the goat mile more challenging. Everyone will also receive a ticket for a free beer or iced coffee at Jester King after the run.

Tickets are $20 (not including fees) and 15 tickets are available for each Goat Mile. There will be 8 goat miles in October (120 tickets total). Please send questions to tastingroom@jesterkingbrewery.com.

Here's the link to tickets. Tickets are on sale today at Noon!

https://www.universe.com/events/the-goat-mile-tickets-QM6RVZ

Artwork by Katie Ross

One of our favorite times of year is when summer passes and the rains return. It allows us to sow our fall cover crop, which helps create healthy soil. Our cover crop is a mixture of broom corn, pumpkin, nasturtium, clover, and millet. We pitch our seeds by broadcasting. It has a lower germination rate than drilling it into our soil by tractor. But we compensate by laying a sheet of mulch on top.

This year we're using a new strategy! We're coating our seeds in a bacterial fungus called Mycorrhiza. Mycorrhiza grows amongst the majority of plant roots. For instance, when you scrape away the detritus on a forest floor, you will find a white spider web looking filament called mycelium. This is the fungal network connecting all plants. Plants feed sugars into the fungus, and in return, they get beneficial nutrients, thus creating a lovely system of life! Developing a healthy fungal network in our soil should help it reach a better state over time.

This project takes place on our inaugural berm, which you can find while walking our half-mile farm trail, or joining us on one of our free farm tours at 2pm and 6pm every Saturday & Sunday.

Photos by Granger Coats

To mow or not to mow? The Americas are built upon a prairie system -- a symbiosis of grasses and grazers. Previously, the natural ecosystem mainly existed off of bison, elk, and deer. Now days, a combination of animal and machine is necessary to repair damaged land. As perennial grasses grow upwards, they drill roots deep into the soil allowing for water permeation and storage. When the grass is cut from the top, it naturally releases portions of these roots, which feed microflora and continue the cycle of life. Unlike turf grass, native grasses are only meant to be mowed once or twice a year based on rainfall.

We opted to use the BCS walk behind tractor with flail mower attachment, which uses rotating “Y” blades to convert biomass into an evenly distributed pulp. Without mowing or grazing, plant matter will simply die, deoxidize, and blow away in the wind, promoting desertification. It will take time to mow our producing land, but we are making Hank Hill proud one day at a time!

Photos by Granger Coats

2019 Zwanze Day at Jester King is this Saturday, September 28th at Noon! Zwanze Day is when Brasserie Cantillon in Brussels, Belgium simultaneously releases a special beer at over 40 locations around the world. Jester King is honored and grateful to be one of the locations.

Here's Cantillon's description of 2019 Zwanze:

"On March 1st 2016, we brewed a smoked Lambic using a blend of classic pilsner malt and smoked malt. Rather than taking the beer to an extreme, we looked instead to find a balance between the acidic character of Lambic and the woodiness of the smoked malt. The result is a fine Gueuze with the classic notes of a Cantillon, complemented by an elegant smokiness in the nose and on the palate."

Our format will be the same as last year (non-ticketed event open to the public). 2019 Zwanze will be tapped world-wide at 2pm CST. Tapping times for all other Cantillon beers (listed below) will be at Noon:

Classic Gueuze

Magic Lambic

Kriek

Vigneronne

Nath

We're also pleased to have Classic Gueuze and Kriek bottles to go starting at Noon. We'll have 90 bottles of Classic Gueuze (750ml x $28) and 30 bottles of Kriek (750ml x $32). Limit one bottle per guest on each beer (two bottles total).

We're pleased to announce the participants for 2019 Funk n' Sour Fest on October 24th!

Funk n' Sour Fest is our opportunity to bring together some of the very best restaurants, wineries, breweries, cideries, and artisanal producers we know for an amazing evening of pairings, sensory excitement, and fun! True to the past, we've created some truly excellent partnerships (listed below). Each team will collaborate to create two food and drink pairings that are not to be missed! This year's event also includes three more restaurant / producer pairs than last year and five wineries!

Aviary with Live Oak Brewing Co.

Better Half with Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches

The Brewer's Table with Red Horn Coffee House & Brewing Co.

Bufalina with Roughhouse Brewing

Comedor with Crowson Wines

Dai Due with St. Elmo Brewing Co.

Figure 8 Coffee

Interstellar BBQ with Oddwood Ales

Jester King Kitchen with Jester King Brewery

Kemuri Tatsu-ya with American Solera

Lenoir with Southold Farm + Cellar

Loca d'oro with ZAFA Wines

Loro with Shacksbury Cider

Mum Foods with La Cruz de Comal Wines

Pure Luck Dairy with Lightsome Wines

We're pleased to introduce a new collaboration today with The Brooklyn Brewery and Southold Farm + Cellar called Three to Make Ready -- a barrel aged wild ale matured on wine lees!

For several years now, we've been interested in seeing the impact that different microorganisms have on our beer. We had yet to experiment with the microbes contained in wine lees, but fortunately, The Brooklyn Brewery and Brewmaster Garrett Oliver served as inspiration. Garrett, as part of Brooklyn's Ghost Bottle series, ages beer on wine lees, thus producing some beautiful results and lessening the gap between wine and beer. We were intrigued by this technique, and wanted to pursue a similar concept with lees from one of favorite local wineries -- Southold Farm + Cellar. Garrett and Southold were happy to oblige, and last year we racked beer onto wine lees that originated from the 2018 Texas grape harvest. The lees came from a mix of varietals including Viognier, Tempranillo, and Chardonnay.

In an effort to be more environmentally friendly and cut down on paper waste, we're discontinuing cardboard, "single-use" six-pack carriers at our Bottles to Go tent. Throughout the course of a year, we give away approximately 10,000 cardboard carriers, which creates significant paper waste. We were inspired by the City of Austin's Single-Use Carryout Bag Ordinance to make this change.

We ask that guests please bring their own reusable carrier or purchase a branded, reusable six-pack carrier from Jester King (pictured above), which we sell at cost for $4. We recognize that this will cause some inconvenience for our guests, but feel it's the appropriate thing to do. Thanks in advance for any support we receive on this.