MAKE IT Thresher Coffee Saison

“We brew a lot with coffee,” says Burial Beer Co.’s Co-owner and Head Brewer Tim Gormley, “and that has a lot to do with the fact that we all met in Seattle. This is just one of four coffee beers that we make regularly at Burial. Our Coffee Milk Stout is the most talked about. We partner with Vortex Coffee a block away and serve a doughnut hole with it.”

The goal for Thresher was to prove that a coffee beer doesn’t have to be black, says Gormley. “Coffee beer can be light and nuanced. With that being said, I suggest using a light roast coffee, making the coffee as concentrated as possible and aiming to clarify the beer and coffee as much as possible to aid in accomplishing the goal of the beer.”

ALL-GRAIN

Brewhouse efficiency: 72% OG: 1.043 FG: 1.006 IBUS: 20 ABV: 4.8%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

6 lb (2.72 kg) Pilsner malt 1 lb 4 oz (567 g) winter red wheat malt 1 lb (454 g) Vienna 5 oz (142 g) honey malt 2 oz (57 g) aromatic malt

HOPS SCHEDULE

0.75 oz (21 g) Northern Brewer [6.5% AA] at 45 minutes

YEAST

1 package of your favorite Saison ale yeast

DIRECTIONS

Mash at 148°F (64°C) for 75 minutes, then sparge at 168°F (76°C). Boil for 90 minutes, following the hops schedule. Cool, oxygenate, and pitch the yeast.

Ferment in the primary for 1 day at 72°F (22°C) and then let the fermentation temperature free rise to 78°F (26°C). At terminal gravity, rack to a secondary and cold crash if possible to clarify. Blend in cold-brewed coffee before bottling or kegging.

To prepare the coffee: Brew 8 oz (227 g) of medium-ground coffee (preferably an Ethiopian sun-dried or your favorite fruit-forward, light-roasted coffee) using about 45 fl oz (1.3 l) of cold water. Allow to brew for 8−16 hours. Filter out the grounds.

BREWER’S NOTES

We use Pilsner malt and winter red wheat malt from our local maltster, Riverbend Malt House.

“We are willing to take a crack at anything,” says Gormley, whose favorite part of the brewing process is the research stage. “I love discovering a historic beer style, reading everything I possibly can about it, and bringing it back in some way.”

One such style is gruit, a beer style that is not hopped but instead is infused with herbs and spices as the bittering and preserving agents. Burial has developed many gruits, including The Discovery of Honey, fermented with wildflower honey, and the Beacon Heather gruit that’s “hopped” with heather flowers instead of actual hops.

“It’s important for us to reinvigorate old and under-appreciated styles,” Gormley says, nodding to the brewery’s name. “It comes from the idea of the jazz funeral in New Orleans, where Doug and Jess went to grad school,” he explains. “A big part of the culture down there is celebrating life. Funeral processions become this big parade with instruments playing and singing and dancing. Everybody stops and joins in, even if they don’t know the person. We like to think of ourselves as celebrating beer, the cyclical nature of life, and the cyclical nature of beer and brewing. We have a deep desire to memorialize certain beer styles and techniques from the Old World.”

The owners at Burial memorialize each unique beer that they brew—the batch is enjoyed, celebrated, and then put to bed to make room on the draft lines for the next distinctive batch. As they grow, they also plan to memorialize a piece of Asheville’s history with the resurrection of the Forestry Camp building.

Asheville is home to the historic Biltmore Estate and surrounding neighborhood where in the 1920s the Forestry Camp property was built as a part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. The buildings on the property served as barracks for young men who were working on the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway that runs through town. Soon those buildings will house Burial’s production facility, offices, storage, a new restaurant, and a craft-beer bar named Forestry Camp.

“This property represents old construction—huge wood beams and trusswork that you just don’t see anymore,” says Gormley. “It’s really well crafted with so much wood, like a log cabin but much bigger. We’re trying to maintain as much of the integrity of the building as we can. We want to make it beautiful and cozy and rustic.”

With deep roots in the town’s history, a diverse lineup of inspired beers, and major expansion in its future, Burial has established itself as a fundamental planet in Asheville’s craftbeer-soaked universe. And it might be the only destination on the planet where you’re guaranteed a selfie with a larger-than-life Tom Selleck.