Allagash christens its American coolship

It wasn’t two years ago that Allagash Brewing founder Rob Tod returned from a trip to Belgium with other American brewers and talked about the fermenting beers under the influence of wild yeast:

“I am inspired to maybe try it some time, but these beers really seem like an art that takes years to master. I don’t know if Allagash can afford to focus on them enough to do them justice. We have enough on our plate as it is.”

Sometimes you can’t help yourself. Check out this video at YouTube:

Allagash built a separate coolship (“koolschip”) facility at its Portland, Maine, brewery. Head brewer Jason Perkins supervised the first brew to go into the flat, open fermenter late in November and begin spontaneous fermentation. A film crew was on hand to capture history in progress.

Perkins called it “an epic event.” No kidding.

“A lot of the stuff we are doing today really goes against most modern brewing techniques,” he said.

5 thoughts on “Allagash christens its American coolship”

  1. Very cool, thanks for sharing that! I know I’m not the only one insterested in seeing how this project progresses, and if this is the beginning of a new trend in American brewing or not.

  2. Hey James –
    This is interesting. My father’s name was James Boxton. Any relation? He lived in Chicago.

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