Trial & Ale Brewing Company Inc.

Hops have played an important role in the craft beer world since the beginning of the scene’s renaissance. How the hop has expressed itself has varied and evolved ever since. Admittedly, in the world of sour mixed fermentations, the hop is an understated bit player compared to many other starring role styles, however the uses continue to evolve. Known for its bitter qualities and its inherent preservative nature, many other vital contributions go unnoticed. In the world of sour beers, dry hopping is the reference standard of uses. Playing up the aroma and flavour of the hop, while minimizing the bitterness is key to a pleasurable experience when combined with acidity. One of our favourite hop varietals that resonates with us and never disappoints is Hallertau Blanc. With a white wine character, and confusingly fruity AND floral notes, it offers a complex nose and flavour that is typically achieved through hop combinations. While grown in the Hallertau region, it is a far cry from its noble namesake. In actuality, this hop is a close relative of the Cascade varietal from North America, albeit with a distinctly German terroir. Unlike all of our other blends which improve wonderfully in cellar, this blend is intended to be enjoyed fresh. We hope you enjoy our first dry hopped release.

An Equatorial Detour was blended with the express intent of raising the humidity in any room. A mixed fermentation blend showcasing a playful series of handoffs between the tart, medium acidity our blends are known for, a firm funk background, and the expressive nature of fruit only the tropics can produce. Our house blend of microbes help create the crisp layers underpinning the bold, vibrant nose, and characteristic mixed fermentation dryness, presenting contrary to what our minds expect when we think of fruit. There are many fruited beers on the market today, we consider this blend to be the Detour from conventional fruited ales.

‘brunch.’ – (you read that correctly, both lowercase and punctuated) is a Canadian take on a more traditional style: the framboise sour. Undeniably raspberry, but with a competing glow of Brettanomyces funk consistent with our blends. It is worth noting how the baseline acidity that is a product of microbial activity, conspires with the acids naturally present in the raspberries, to further increase the total acidity of the blend while maintaining a less aggressive and more balanced overall profile. In addition to the heavy raspberry charge, is a mostly silent, yet substantial fruit contribution of mango added not for its impact to the flavour profile, but for its contribution to the overall mouthfeel. At 7.6% ABV, this blend is a fermentation with no indication on the palate of the percentage contained within. Allow to warm slightly to enjoy all of the nuance and complexity. Enjoy! Trial& Ale Brewing Company Edmonton, AB Canada mixedfermentation.com

Our current blend focuses on the Montmorency Cherry. The pressure we placed upon ourselves with using cherries stems from our deeply held belief that cherries have a special traditional significance in the history of fruited beers. We view cherries as entirely separate from the pack when it comes to fruit. Whether long-aged, traditional method Kriek Lambics, or the truly special seasonal releases from the time-tested sour breweries of Oregon, cherries add another layer of magic to even the best sour beers. Utilizing our pale sour base beer as a canvas, we opted for a rather restrained (for us) amount of cherries in order to highlight the deep, jammy pie filling textureand flavour depth of the cherries, but thinning and brightening these flavours with the lactic acid forward nature of the underlying base blend. Although the wait was long, we are excited to bring you our take on what we consider to be a very special style.

The American Southwest is an amazing place. With an arid climate and vast landscapes, it is generally considered to be a challenging environment for cultivation. However, as Jeff Goldblum so famously observed, “nature somehow finds a way.” Among the arroyos and high deserts, is a defiant hero: Opuntia, the Prickly Pear Cactus. Despite the outward appearance of this marvel of vegetation, it is amazingly thoroughly edible. Even the cactus blades (nopales) are amazing, especially when used in tacos. The ubiquity and importance of this rare survivor is noteworthy. Mexico even pays tribute to this special plant on its flag. Our focus today is on the fruit that it produces. These small, purplish, and bulbous cactus byproducts are packed with a sweet desert nectar that is a perfect companion to mixed fermentation blends. If you haven’t purchased your ticket to Santa Fe based on the description, you most definitely will after sampling. You will never be the same when you return!

A Saison Apparent! This blend has received the thorough Brettanomyces treatment. The Saison style originated near the border of Southern Belgium and Northern France as a farmhouse style beer with a low ABV% to serve the workers in the fields. Today, Saisons have evolved to be quite versatile in style, and substantially less sessionable. With the signature fruit esters and dry, hyper-attenuated finishing gravity from the diastaticus variant of the primary yeasts, it pours a rich copper to orange. The pairing of Saison with Brett is a hand-in-glove mating of dry, complex fruit with the earthy funk and deep flavours only a matured wild beer can achieve. Despite a tendency of wild yeasts to completely consume the resultant flavour profile of the primary yeast strains, we feel this blend achieves the balance of wild while preserving the traditional Saison character. We focused on an explicit lack of subtlety with this beer. Brettanomyces is undoubtedly the star of the show with esters playing the supporting role to round it out. As is our broader intention with all of our blends, we strive to showcase the fermentation characteristics above all else.

The pineapple is one of the most elbow-throwing fruits in the world when it comes to assertive flavours and acidity. It doesn’t wait in line, ask for directions, or care what you think. In fact, pineapples are kind of assholes. If you’ve ever experienced the joys of carving one up, you understand even better. Our challenge with this blend was to crush the spirit of the pineapple in order to have it behave like a decent member of fruit society. Balance was the goal of this blend. Fruiting rates are not one size-fits-all, so an understanding of the target pineapple profile was key for us. Despite the general constitution of the pineapple it does have many great qualities. The flavour comes from the chemical compound Ethyl Butyrate, which is a commonly occurring ester in nature. Bright like the sun, it’s best enjoyed in pleasurable doses, as over indulging burns. We feel the intensity and level we achieved in this blend is on the mark. In the end, we made a new friend in pineapple.

When it comes to fruit additions in sour beer, there are many combinations and experimentations that work well. Alternatively, there is this beer infusing a mixed fermentation blend with the blood of a Roman god. Enter the Sangiovese Grape, also colloquially known as the Blood of Jupiter. This hybrid release brings a dimension to the blend that only this thin-skinned, mildly tannic little fruit can provide. Making up traditionally ~70% of all Chianti blends, it provides a vinous reductive value to an already complex equation. With a presentation of red currant, pleasant spicy notes, with a far-off hint of tobacco leaf, the resultant flavour is far from the individuality of the inputs. Saluti!

Robert got canned, and we are pleased to introduce this blend as its less formal, more fun, little brother Bob. Ironically, this was the original name derived from the acronym for Blood Orange Brett before we added some formality to it for gravitas. Now we've decided to revert back to its colloquial common name for this delicious blend and release it in cans as BOB. A very drinkable summer beer, but with enough curious funk and depth to be enjoyed on the coldest of winter days. We find the interplay between our Brett cultures and blood orange difficult to define a cutoff between the flavours. Of all the citrus fruits in the realm of possibility, blood orange is definitely the most “wild” among them. This lack of a rigid structure and flavour disambiguation speaks to the inherent pairing abilities of our Brett cultures’ earthiness and the citric tang native to blood orange. Of note is that this is a wild blend, not sour, which highlights the wild funk creating properties of our cultures, while maintaining a slight fruit derived tartness and beer structure. Enjoy!

Separated To A Degree is our first mixed fermentation release. We’ve waited a long time and cultivated an elaborate mixture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria over a period of years to bring you this blend. Presented with light copper hues and a citrus nose, the first impression of upfront lactic sourness soon gives way to a retronasal grapefruit olfaction that delights. To offer a balance to the acidity, a distinctive, delicately layered Brettanomyces character provides a baseline funk and backbone to the blend, providing even more depth to explore. We wanted to showcase our blend to be the difference, not the similarity. While there are many qualities that make this beer a textbook American Sour & Wild Mixed Fermentation by style, there are yet more characteristics that separate it from the pack. We hope that this is the first of many of our blends you come to enjoy in the future. Trial& Ale Brewing Company Edmonton, AB Canada mixedfermentation.com

Against all odds, above the 49th Parallel North grows a hearty, spiny, sour bush. Despite the amazingly harsh conditions of its environment, defiant, glowing orange orbs of acid break through and flourish. You may have never heard of Sea Buckthorn, but chances are you have encountered it in your everyday life. These little globes of joy are the most acidic fruit we’ve ever encountered. Primarily scooped up entirely by the cosmetics industry for their high Omega 3-6-9 fatty acid contents, we had to search far and wide for our sour orange friends. This batch of Sea Buckthorn is of Siberian provenance, and with enough acidity to make facial motor function cease. We had a relatively difficult time with the solubility of this blend. We hadn’t accounted for the high fatty acid content of the fruit making it completely insoluble in solution. After some time on fruit, we ended up with half of the tank with teeth-meltingly sour liquid, and the other half of the tank with only the base beer blend. Suffice to say, after much work, we solved our solubility issues, but this release owns the title of the most stubborn blend we’ve made to date. However, the citrus-like fruit quality, combined with our blend selection makes all the memories of the production pains melt away. Enjoy!

Separated To A Degree – Summer 2021 is the third turn of our award winning mixed fermentation blend. We’ve blended this release with the same elaborate mixture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria with the goal of preserving the flavour profile above all else. Presented with light copper hues and a citrus nose, the first impression of upfront lactic sourness soon gives way to a retronasal grapefruit olfaction that delights. To offer a balance to the acidity, a distinctive, delicately layered Brettanomyces character provides a baseline funk and backbone to the blend, providing even more depth to explore. We wanted to showcase our blend to be the difference, not the similarity. While there are many qualities that make this beer a textbook American Sour & Wild Mixed Fermentation by style, there are yet more characteristics that separate it from the pack. We hope that this is the first of many of our blends you come to enjoy in the future.

Looks can be deceiving, and our new blend is the perfect example. The Dragonfruit is one of nature’s most beautiful edible offerings. Pink and green with pineapple like folds and turns, it protects the purple-red or stark white interior flesh of this delicate fruit. The flavour contained within could best be described as timid, but still bold. In our pale sour base, we needed to make sure that these subtle fruit flavours came through. In order to do so, we needed to increase our fruiting rate with this particular fruit. One might think that means a little more than normal. Not at all. We added so much Dragonfruit to this blend that we needed two tanks to fruit it. Like 50% more fruit than our highest fruited blend. This release holds the Trial & Ale record for “most fruit ever” and we could not be happier with the results. A winelike profile, with almost no tannin extraction left us very pleased. A flirtatious Brettanomyces linger brings the taste home. This blend benefits from a serving temp slightly lower than cellar temps. We look forward to how this continues to develop over time.

Very rarely do we name a beer in such a direct way, we generally prefer references to descriptors. Over the long process of developing all of our blends from brew to barrel to bottle to label, we generally “discover” the names of our blends when we refer to them throughout the entirety of the blend production through internal references made, tasting notes, anecdotes, etc. In every step of the development of this wild blend, “Blood Orange Brett” was eventually shortened to “Bob,” which inevitably had some formality added back to it to become “Robert.” We find the interplay between our Brett cultures and blood orange difficult to define a cutoff between the flavours. Of all the citrus fruits in the realm of possibility, blood orange is definitely the most “wild” among them. This lack of a rigid structure and flavour disambiguation speaks to the inherent pairing abilities of our Brett cultures’ earthiness and the citric tang native to blood orange. Of note is that this is a wild blend, not sour, which highlights the wild funk creating properties of our cultures, while maintaining a slight fruit derived tartness and beer structure.

Our meticulous adherence to ridiculous hyperrationality sometimes requires a forced counterbalance. 18th Century neo-romantic era Germanic literature references seem like a fitting escape from the confines of rationality in the context of this contemporary period in North American history. Why not focus on an exploration of fervent individualism with a philosophical emotional slant, while assessing the inherent basis of good and evil? These ties seemed fitting when our inspiration for this blend comes from the mountainous alpine regions of Europe. The elderberry, while not a sweet berry, adds a depth and maturity to mixed fermentation blends unlike any other fruit. Anyone tasting an elderberry can attest to the irrational nature of the use of this fruit, because at undiluted concentrations, it is exceptionally unpalatable. However, when used in conjunction with our chosen blend, the romanticism can be found. We don’t know what irrational natural humanism tastes like, but this is what we imagine when we entertain the thought. These Elderberries journeyed from Austria to make their way to your glass. We recommend a cozy evening with Goethe while imbibing. Enjoy!

Separated To A Degree – Winter ‘21/’22 is the fourth turn of our award winning mixed fermentation blend. We’ve blended this release with the same elaborate mixture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria with the goal of preserving the flavour profile above all else. Presented with light copper hues and a citrus nose, the first impression of upfront lactic sourness soon gives way to a retronasal grapefruit olfaction that delights. To offer a balance to the acidity, a distinctive, delicately layered Brettanomyces character provides a baseline funk and backbone to the blend, providing even more depth to explore. We wanted to showcase our blend to be the difference, not the similarity. While there are many qualities that make this beer a textbook American Sour & Wild Mixed Fermentation by style, there are yet more characteristics that separate it from the pack. We hope that this is the first of many of our blends you come to enjoy in the future.

We’ve had blackberry on our minds for some time now, and from the very beginning of the planning stages for this blend, we knew that a Saison base was what we would use. Only the thin, hyper attenuated, dry, Brettanomyces canvas of our Saison cellar stock could properly highlight the rich fruit character extracted from the blackberries during maturation. The magic of the blackberry is found in its ability to put forth a heavy fruit profile, and unmistakably “berry” goodness, even after every bit of sugar is consumed by our microbes. Upon reflection, people generally do not disassociate fruit flavours from their normal sugar content. Which is why blending with fruit can be challenging. Trying to select fruit that will end up a reduced essence of the input, lacking the primary characteristic of sugar, is an interesting and fun exercise. Our goal with A Saison Brambled was to transport you to a creekside thicket near the end of a hot summer to indulge in the juicy berry flavours from the vines. Best enjoyed with both feet in a cold stream.

We are excited to introduce a new microbe to our blends: Welcome Pediococcus to the Trial & Ale family. Early on in our brewing plans, we dedicated a portion of our cellar space and barrels to barrel stock destined to be (very) long fermented. We filled these early and segregated them to wait until this traditional lactic acid producing bacteria went through the long process of creating a product that only time and Pedio can deliver. We are excited to find that our LAMF (Long-Aged Mixed Fermentation) barrels are starting to come online and are reaching maturity. We feel that these barrels, along with the slightly modified base recipe that includes a high amount of 6-year aged Lambic hops, produces a complex set of flavours that are a throwback to old world styles that can’t be achieved without a substantial amount of time in oak. One of our favourite aspects of these blends are the rich minerality akin to a pleasant slightly metallic note that produces a drying effect on the palate and leaves the taster desiring more.

Cellar balance is an important part of what we need to maintain to ensure a robust stock of barrels to choose from to provide consistency from blend to blend. Maintaining variety in our cellar balance allows us to be more creative, but it also affords us the opportunity to get lucky from time to time. Once in a while, during our barrel sampling sessions, we encounter a barrel with special tasting notes. In this special limited release, we took two barrels that displayed something special or interesting, and combined them and packaged them as is. These barrels had a number of fun things going on with the flavours they were presenting. We were satisfied with both individually, and even more happy when we combined them. In blending, it’s very rare that a barrel has enough complexity to be released on its own, hence the necessity of blending. These two barrels showcased a deep aroma and forward palate flavour, but then continued with a slightly acetic note, that adds complexity at the current quantities. You can taste many of our other blends in this release, but you will not find much of this release in many of our other blends.

Peaches don’t typically conjure visions of aggressive, wild flavours. Most people are likely to describe peaches as “soft” or “delicate” in their flavour profile. But we saw potential in bringing out a wild side of the peach and giving this fruit its day in the sun. Starting with our base Saison stock with its huge wild yeast character, we added a slightly tart component to further brighten up the blend, and allowed it to rest on peaches for several months. Rays of sunshine are the primary tasting notes, followed by a rush of all the unique musty cellar funk our signature wild Saison blending character is known for. A pleasant outcome to the blend is a melding of soft and wild, displaying a negotiated sensory middle ground. The peach rounds out and brings the wild character of the base to a more moderate level, while the funk helps elevate the peaches to achieve their full potential. As blenders, we are never more excited than when separate ingredients mutually enhance the other. While peaches on a wild beer base is not a particularly novel concept, we feel this example stands out as something really special. Come along and take a trip out to the farm with us. Enjoy!

To date, all of our sour blends have comprised our pale sour base beer, which we have an extensive history of working with. The logical next step in our evolution was to strive for the perfect dark sour base beer to begin experimenting with. Logically, we rang up our friends at Omen Brewing who happen to specialize in dark beer styles. We discussed the characteristics we were looking to work with and formulated a plan. Somewhere in the discussions of mixed culture bacterial fermentation, we had an interesting idea. What if we actually showcased the effect of mixed fermentation cultures on a traditional style? How would we demonstrate the non-saccharomyces contribution to the blend? We walked through all steps of the scientific method and talked through all conventionally accepted control and observe principles and settled on creating a first-hand look at the before and after. A new kind of collaboration was born. What excited us collectively about this collab was the opportunity to demonstrate the highest level of technical skill from both breweries. We decided on the Belgian Dark Strong (appellation respected) as our working base beer style. All wort was to be produced by Omen, and the batch split into two parts for fermenting. The Omen portion fermented into a clean Belgian Dark Strong; the Trial & Ale portion hauled back to the barrelhouse - destined for barrels to become something entirely different altogether.

We have to assume that not a lot of people want to sit down and make an entire meal out of nothing but lemons. They are typically a tertiary accompaniment that is there to provide acids to brighten up any dish or beverage. So why on earth would we design a blend completely around the flavours of the Sicilian lemon? In the gastro-chorus of flavour profiles, why would we give this fruit a solo? The truth is that lemons are frequently front and center in many culinary experiences but tend to keep a lower profile than they deserve. The shocking part of this release is the familiarity that comes through. You will likely recognize this flavour for what it is. How it plays with our house Brett cultures was even better than we had hoped. With an almost “spritzer” feel, it has the singular goal of achieving the pinnacle of refreshing, by design. While many beverages dance, this blend is unique because while it is dancing, it sings. Enjoy!

The best day of the year for us always comes in autumn. It is the day when we receive the phone call that a large amount of wine grapes have arrived and are on their way to our door. Timed with the end of the grape harvest for wine producers, this annual shipment is destined for our mixed fermentation blends. The technical classification of this particular style is known as a Grape Ale, however it is more commonly known as a Beer/Wine Hybrid. Our first foray into this style was our fall 2020 release Up Around Mount Giove, which utilized the Sangiovese grape. We loved the character and charm in that release so much we decided to expand our grape repertoire and branch out into other varietals. We settled on the Zinfandel grape. The Zinfandel grape, also known as Primitivo, is picked opportunistically at a moment in time to maximize sugar content. These sweet little water balloons of sugary joy offer a deeper shade of purple, while bringing an all-around different flavour profile to the mix. As with all of our grape blends, we are very excited to see how they continue to evolve over time. Pick up this year’s Mount Giove release as well for a side-by-side comparison of the contribution the specific grape varietals bring to the blends. While we wish we were able to produce this style year-round, the seasonal release nature of these blends allows us to cherish them even more.

Excellent wild ales. Funky, fruity and balanced brews. Excellent guest taps allowing you to get a taste of that the area has to offer. Bottle shop is well done and easy to navigate. I would recommend ownership/management invest in some box options. I would have liked a box capable of nicely packing 6 bottles to make transport easier. Attached Lore Pizza was killer!

Incredible Pizza always amazing Beers! Great service!!!

I've only recently stumbled upon these guys and their beer, but wow. If you're even remotely into craft beer, pop in and grab a couple bottles. The more of their beer I try, the more I'm convinced they're one of the premier breweries in Alberta, if not Canada.

We've been following their beer for years and it's the best wild fermented beer in Alberta. They have a good selection of other styles from local breweries if you don't like wild sours. The new tap room is great - looks fairly minimal but there are enough acoustic panels to make it quiet even on Saturday night. Currently open 11:30am until 11pm Tues to Sat (hopefully they'll post times officially soon). Check Lore Pizza for food reviews as it's the same space. Great pizza - check Tiktok for videos of the stupidly large portions.

Ordered every single sour on the menu, i told the bartender to just keep them coming, started at the top and kept going down the list. If you love sours, this place is for you! They are awesome. We had the 24" pepperoni pizza between the two of us and there is NO WAY we could finish it. Its absolutely HUGE! The pizza is delicious and worth the $48.