ADVENTURES / STORIES / BEER
As you plan your next trip North to come and see us, consider a local Airbnb Experience at Pine House. Just seven minutes away from Portage, outfitted with everything you need to relax and unwind, and surrounded by the beautiful ferns and maple trees of North Country.
Only recently did we find out about the North Country Trail, a 4,600 mile contingent trail (largest in the US) that stretches from North Dakota to New York state. The trail passes just by Walker to the South and offers access to multiple free day hikes and overnight camping opportunities. Deciduous and coniferous forests, remote lakes, rivers, and wildlife are abundant in this area. We currently help manage a trail section East of Walker, and hope you'll come join us for a hike and a beer. Please look through the Area Adventures map below for more information.
The Walker area is home to a vast network of paved biking trails - including a very well known route across the state that zips and turns through the deep woods of Chippewa National Forest. It's a hilly, 25 mile beast that covers desolate ground which most of us bikers rarely ever get. Starting at the brewery, this ride lasts approximately 2.5 hours, looping south, then west, then north, back in Walker. Stop or a swim, or pedal hard to the end - either way, an ice cold beer will await you at the end. Please look over the local Adventure Map that we've put together. Hope to see you out there.
From the brewery, nearby Paul Bunyan Trail offers an expansive, 120 mile network of paved biking trails. A popular route and one we take often, follows rivers, lakes, forests, and farms, to eventually land in Bemidji., MN. There, you'll find a number of attractions and camping opportunities including great shops downtown, fantastic beer at Bemidji Brewing, and a cozy campground at Bemidji Lake State Park. The route is roughly 38 miles and is mostly flat for a nice and easy day of riding. Please check out the area attractions map we've built below for route details.
Yeah, yeah - we said it. Forage for some stuff that you can actually use in a commercial brewing application.
The Walker area is home to great sources of wild yeast that we brewers can use to make complex and the most historic styles of beer. Most places have similar sources, hosts, and strain similarities, but for now I want to focus on Minnesota.
Spontaneous fermentation is the root of all things alcohol. Brewers for thousands of years fermented alcohol from sweet fruits and vegetables, and without their knowledge. These food sources not only included nutrients needed for the people's nutrition and survival, but held an unknown secret that would produce an imbibing liquid if left to spoil.
Today we know a lot more about fermentation however, and why it's either a good or bad idea to use things like wild yeast (most breweries stay far away from the stuff because it's so volatile). But for the fact that this has been practiced for thousands of years and produces some very complex beers, we want to show you two ways of extracting your next strain from the great outdoors.
The first process is the most old school way of leaving and spontaneously fermenting some sugary liquid. Most simply, brew a small batch of 1.040 gravity wort (sweet liquid produced before fermentation is started), put it into something sanitized, cover the top with milk cloth, and allow it to sit outside overnight. Try to find an area with good vegetation such as a garden. As the beer cools, yeast and microbes found in the air will settle into the liquid and start the next phase of fermentation.
Always remember that the fail safe in these experiments is the gift of fermentation and pasteurization. Once the wort morphs into alcohol, pasteurization will start to occur, killing off any unwarranted buddies. Of the microbes you hope to find, lactobacillus and brettanomyces are common.
The second process, and one we use at Portage takes yeast directly from a host (rather than leaving the wort out in the open). It's far more simple, only requiring a piece of wild fruit, flower, or deciduous tree bark to get started. Once found, we submerge that host into a mini batch of wort (50 mLs worth) and follow the same process to fermentation. This process minimizes exposure to the air and encourages a better fermentation with a limited sample.
With either process, be sure to smell the finished to leftover beer before doing anything with it. If yeast is present, smells of fruit and funk should be noticed. If the smell check passes, scale the culture at a one to ten rate (50 mL container of yeast > to 500 mL > to 5000 mL > etc.).
With this yeast, beer styles such as farmhouse Belgians, labics, mixed fermentation sours, hybrid ale styles like pale ales and IPA are possible, and should produce higher attenuated and more complex beers. See below for a step by step on gather yeast from a host, rather than the air.
Feel free to email us at hello@portagebeer.com with any questions that you have.
Oh ahead,
Portage Brewing Team
