The Sun Beams! A Garden Path Fermentation Release

Burlington, Washington – June 25, 2024 – By Garden Path Fermentation

This Saturday, June 29th, Garden Path Fermentation will release The Sun Beams ! Our newest beer is a dry hopped summer crusher which we previewed at last weekend’s Washington Brewers Fest and will soon have available on draft at both of our locations–our Skagit Valley tasting room at 11653 Higgins Airport Way in Burlington, and at The Great Northern Bottle Shop & Lounge, at 1319 Commercial St. in downtown Bellingham.

We wanted to make the perfect beer for that magical time in the PNW when the sun finally emerges from behind the clouds. This is a dry-hopped 4.4% ABV bière de coupage–that is, a blend of relatively young beer and older, barrel-aged beer. It’s delicate, bright, easy-drinking, and a wonderful way to salute the sun.

The base for The Sun Beams. was brewed last summer, using yeast we cultivated from bottles of Our First Take Time.–the first beer we brewed at Garden Path Fermentation. The grain bill was a 50/50 mix of Skagit Valley Malting Talisman True British barley and malted wheat, with Sterling hops added in the whirlpool. Fermentation took place in an open foudre, with an extended secondary fermentation in stainless. In April of this year, we added a portion of older beer from one of our horizontal foudres to give it a touch of acidity and added depth, dry-hopped it with Loral for an herbal, crisp finish, and keg-conditioned it with local blackberry honey. The end result is an easy-drinking salute to the sunshine with notes of lemon balm, citrus pith, dried herbs, and marigold.

The Sun Beams. is a draft only release and will be available for offsite distribution in 30L and 1/6bbl kegs starting next Wednesday, July 3rd.

Art by Cass Graybeal Brown. Photo by Chris Carley.