The Beer

This special Hanabi beer features an heirloom grain variety named Haná that was originally used by Josef Groll to brew the world’s first Pilsner in 1842, in the city of Pilsen, in present day Czechia. Brought back from near extinction by British farmers in 2015, we source it from one of the only fields in the world where it can be found today, in Norfolk, England. Our Haná Pilsner is the rhythm section of our brewery and will be produced year-round. It represents the core of our house approach and style. Presented as a Pilsner style lager, this heritage barley brings aromatic notes of fresh wholegrain bread, nori, and dried spearmint, along with a long, fresh finish.

This beer highlights a two-acre planting of an ancient barley variety named Bere, grown beyond organically on San Juan Island, Washington. A 5,000-year-old heirloom, Bere is believed to have given ‘beer’ its name. Once a favorite grain of the Vikings for making breads and brewing beer, today Bere is nearly extinct. Brewed as a Pilsner-style lager, San Juan Bere evokes the essence of a grain meadow on these beautiful, wild islands. The cereal grain aromas are effusive and comforting, reminiscent of beeswax, fresh peppermint, and wildflowers. Cold-water northern brine and flint further reveal its origin story. This is the best beer we have ever brewed, and damn, it just tastes like home.

This beer showcases Steffi barley from family-owned Wisota Farm in the Palouse region of Washington State. Organic growers favor this full-flavored variety, as it is naturally resilient and requires little in terms of modern farming inputs. Brewed as a Pilsner style lager, Steffi brings fragrant notes of cracked hazelnuts, sweet cedar, and spicy freshly shaved ginger, resulting in a beer that is simultaneously comforting and exciting.

This beer showcases a century-old heirloom variety of barley named Isaria that originates from southern Germany, a rarity in the contemporary brewing landscape. As is typical with heirloom varieties, it imparts a unique aroma and flavor profile, along with a substantial mid-palate weight for a lighter style of beer. Brewed as a Helles Style lager, the Isaria barley produces a beer with a distinct hazelnut character, complex forest aromatics, and a minty, lifted finish.

This beer features local, California Grown barley that comes from a farm just an hour up the road from the brewery. It was sprouted (malted) using traditional “floor-malting” methods by Admiral Maltings in Alameda. They are the only maltster in California using this technique, and one of the few in the entire country. When the sprouted barley seeds are dried and lightly toasted in their kiln, they come out fragrant and delicious. From there they go straight into our kettles at the brewery to capture the fresh essence of the grains, like bread straight out of the oven. Brewed as a Pilsner style lager, the Admiral barley aromatics are bright and expressive, bringing notes of sweet hay, perfumy lemons, white tea leaves, and a granitic minerality.

This season’s beer features a barley variety named Baronesse that we sourced from Joseph’s Grainery, a 5th generation family farm in the Palouse region of Washington State. Baronesse is originally a German variety that was largely abandoned there due to its lower yields than some other ‘higher performance’ barleys. After declaring it the ‘most delicious barley he had ever tasted’, however, farmer Bill Myers has championed Baronesse for years, and to our knowledge, his is the only farm growing it in North America. Brewed as a Pilsner style lager, it brings notes of fresh hay, alfalfa, dried chamomile florals, and a wet stones minerality.

Bere (pronounced like bear) is believed to be the oldest commercially grown variety of brewing barley in the world, having been cultivated for at least 5,000 years in the cold reaches of the Orkney Islands. We sourced it for this special Hanabi brew from the Palouse Heritage Grain farm in Washington State. The flavor of Bere reveals its origins as a semi-wild cereal grain with small, intensely flavored berries. We brewed an aromatic Helles-style lager with it, to showcase the delicious and unique character of the grains. Bere brings a substantial, round midpalate, and a balancing richness to this light and refreshing style of beer, along with a crisp, mineral finish. The aromatics are yellow-fruited and distinct; fresh sweet corn and cereal, vibrant, and lightly herbal, with subtle earthy elements reminiscent of conifer forest.

Barke is a particularly flavorful variety of springtime barley, grown in the German states of Saxony and Thuringia, and is used for brewing traditional styles of lager there. This barley brings strong aromatics and power, while at the same time an openness and sense of levity. We brewed a Vienna-style Lager with it, a slightly more malt-forward style than Pilsner, to lean into this barley’s natural strengths. This approach produces a rich golden-colored lager beer with a light natural turbidity that we prefer to leave intact as a signature of this delicious grain, and a persistent cream-colored, fine-grained head. Opening with highly aromatic sweet-straw, spearmint, baking spices, and warm cedar, overtones of fresh spring earth come up, bringing a sense of vitality and vibrancy. With a strong mid-palate and a powerful initial approach, the beer transitions into a very fresh, long finish.