Description
The Vertical Integration taste experience is a beer selection like no other! This is a complete beer tasting experience, in a box!
Many of today’s hippest brewers make a big deal about the varieties and quantities of hops they use to flavour their beers. Big hop additions have never really been our thing at Black Donkey though. We prefer to focus on the quality of our malts, the fermenting and conditioning processes, and most importantly, the health and vigour of our yeasts. After all, No Yeast, No Beer.
The Vertical Integration box features three very different beers, all of which started out with essentially the same malt recipe. The differences in these beers are the result of different yeasts and fermentation practices, and different conditioning or lagering techniques.
Welcome to flavour country!
The experience includes:
- x1 Western Warrior – Our small-batch, micro-brewed, all-natural lager (4.2% ABV). The wort is fermented at low temperatures with a lager yeast, and is conditioned in stainless steel tanks at 2℃ for up to 6 weeks, before being bottle conditioned. The result is a clean, crisp, light taste and a relatively low alcohol content, with some residual complex sugars.
- x1 Sheep Stealer – Our first brew and the original Irish Farmhouse Ale (5.6%). Loosely based on a Belgian Saison style ale, Sheep Stealer starts life as the same wort (unfermented beer) as Western Warrior, but it is fermented at high temperatures, with a diastatic yeast strain. This diastatic yeast converts virtually all the wort sugars into alcohol and CO2, hence the higher alcohol content. Post fermentation, it too is conditioned at low temps before being bottle conditioned.
- x1 Sergeant Jimmy* – What happens when you take a batch of Sheep Stealer and put it into ex whiskey barrels? Sgt Jimmy happens, that’s what. It really is that simple. Sheep Stealer is transferred (racked) into ex Irish whiskey barrels for approximately 3 weeks, post fermentation. The barrels are stored at ambient temperatures, and the wood infuses the beer with flavours of oak, coconut, and of course whiskey. The residual whiskey in the barrels increases the alcohol content of the beer from 5.6% to 7.7%. The beer is then cold conditioned in stainless tanks for 12 weeks before being bottle conditioned. The bottle conditioning and elevated alcohol content of Sgt Jimmy makes it a fantastic beer for extended cellaring. The hard part of cellaring though is leaving it alone long enough to mature properly, so we’ve removed the temptation for you. *This is Sergeant Jimmy ’24 batch.
Tasting Tips:
For the optimum tasting experience, chill the beers in the fridge overnight in an upright position. Take them all out at the same time and start with Warrior first, crisp and cold, then Sheep Stealer, which will have warmed up a little, and finally crown the experience with Sgt Jimmy, should ideally be at at about 12-14℃ for maximum flavour sensation.
Where Do We Deliver?
We offer 32 county shipping across the whole island of Ireland (ROI & NI) We also ship to a selection of European destinations within the EU. Unfortunately we can not currently ship beer to the UK.
For more info on our EU shipping rates please visit our shipping information page.
Handmade, Irish Beer from Roscommon.
