Apple Pomace Puncheon

The Angry Orchard in Walden, New York was generous in giving us over a thousand pounds of pressed apples (Gold Rush, Dabinett, Macintosh and Porters Perfection) which is mostly pulp and skins called pomace leftover from cidermaking. We let the magic of wild, native yeast from Hudson Valley, living on the pomace, start a spontaneous fermentation with LA made wort heavy on oats and using aged hops for some lambic-style rustic, earthy notes. The fermentation and maceration on the apple skins lasted a month before the beer was moved to oak puncheon barrels for further development of sour and funky flavors and to round out those apple tannins with almost a year of aging. Its complexity is driven by a spontaneous start with an old-world use of ingredients and plenty of time spent aging in puncheons.