Lompoc's Bomb.com by Brewer Irena Bierzynski

Lompoc brewer Irena Bierzynski

The brewers at Lompoc are creating a beer for this year’s festival at the brewery at the 5th Quadrant. Before the beer is ready to be served, it will be barrel aged, cellared, and blended. The basis of this beer, which is to be dubbed Bomb.com Cherry Ale, is a pale ale that was fermented in barrels on top of tart cherries. These barrels were originally used to produce port by Raymond Vineyards, then used for Oregon whiskey by Big Bottom Whiskey, then were brought to Lompoc. Here, we have previously used them to age a wheat beer.

We began this beer by brewing a batch of Kick Axe, our pale ale, on March 21st. Bryan pitched the yeast and left the beer to begin fermentation in a tank. Two days later, the beer was fermenting vigorously. That day, Bryan and I brought the barrels into the brewery to be filled. First the fruit, tart cherries, was put into the barrels, then approximately five barrels of the pale ale was added on top of that. The beer was left in the barrels for a few more weeks to complete fermentation.

Lompoc Head Brewer Bryan Kielty

A month later, the beer was removed from the barrels and put into kegs. At this point the other brewers and I tasted the beer. It was alright - it tasted like a fairly dry pale ale with noticeable tart cherry flavor coming through in the body as well as on the nose. However, we decided to make it more interesting by blending it with other beers.

    To determine which beers to use and in what proportions, we first blended them on a smaller scale. We made quite a few mixtures, varying the proportions of the beers, and tasted each one to see which ones were the most enjoyable. It was decided that a mixture of the barrel-aged pale ale, Cherry Bomb, and a wheat wine was the best and would be made on a larger scale for the festival. (Cherry Bomb is our Proletariat Red Ale aged in port barrels on top of tart cherries, and it’s pretty excellent too.) It was the presence of Cherry Bomb in the blend that led to the name Bomb.com - it’s a reference to the other “bomb” ale, and is slang for “awesome”.

   

 Once the decision was made, the beer was put into a tank to be blended. We used a tank that we use specifically for fruit beers, which we call our “funky tank”. Kegs of pale ale, Cherry Bomb, and wheat wine were sent into the tank in proportion to the recipe we’d agreed upon at the blending session. Once it was all in, the beer was carbonated. After that, all there was to do was let it wait for the Fruit Beer Festival. For anyone who likes tart cherries, this beer should be a favorite this year!



Cheers,
Irena Bierzynski, Lompoc Brewer