Getting Funky

It’s not every day you meet someone with the job title of “Funk Master.” But for Patrick Howell, who heads up Nickel Brook Brewing Co.’s sour beer production facility known as the “Funk Lab” in Burlington, Ont., the role is something he takes very seriously.

“The team that we have built at the Funk Lab is small, creative and extremely capable,” says Howell, who is a graduate of the prestigious masters of science, brewing and distilling course at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

Howell and his tightly knit troupe of brewers have “experimented, failed and achieved together over the lifespan of the facility.”

“I’m very proud of my team and what we have accomplished over the last couple of years,” he says. On average, the Funk Lab can brew upwards of 40,000 litres of sour beer per month during the summer season.

Founded in 2005, Nickel Brook has been one of the leading players in the Ontario craft beer movement. Producing an array of seasonal and specialty beers, the brewery follows the simple motto: “beer, down to a science.”

In 2016, the company transformed its original brewery into a facility dedicated exclusively to small-batch sour beers. The largest of its kind in Canada, the Funk Lab is home to a massive barreling program where beers are aged in 400 different varieties of whisky and wine barrels for added depth and complexity. Nickel Brook’s Raspberry Uber, a Berliner-style Weisse beer that uses half a pound of raspberries for every litre of beer, is the most popular creation to come out of the lab so far.

Sour beers have been gaining popularity in recent years — they’re omnipresent on restaurant and bar menus nowadays — but they’re no newcomer to the beer scene.

“It’s important to know that there is nothing new about the idea of a sour beer,” says Luke Pestl, co-founder of Toronto’s Bellwoods Brewery.

Prior to modern refrigeration and key advances in microbial science, most beer would have been influenced to varying degrees by acid-producing bacteria, which ultimately creates what we now call sour beer. “With the rise in craft beer and small-batch production,” Pestl says, “people are again learning to appreciate this diverse family of beers.”

What exactly makes a sour beer unique? The style we enjoy today was perfected in Belgium in the 19th century. It uses naturally occurring bacteria and yeasts including Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, and Brettanomyces (known as “Brett”) that happen to be floating around the brewery or living in the brewing equipment. Today, some of the oldest Belgian breweries are famous for not removing dust or even cobwebs from the brewing area for fear of disturbing natural colonies or micro-organisms that impart sought-after flavour profiles.

These yeasts and bacteria are the secret to sour beer. They contribute a hint of tartness, akin to sauerkraut or yogurt, as well as characteristic funky flavours and aromas, sometimes compared to musty leather, horse blanket and even wet dog. Naturally acidic fruit — think cherries, peaches and berries — can add another layer of interesting sour tang to the mix.

When you purchase a sour beer today, you’re typically buying a kettle sour or a traditional sour or wild ale.

Kettle sours are inexpensive, quick and relatively easy to make and are responsible for the impressive growth in the sour-beer industry. As the name implies, souring occurs not in a barrel but in a kettle and the yeast or bacteria is introduced.

On the other hand, a traditional sour or wild ale is produced through a process called “mixed fermentation,” which uses a combination of conventional and wild yeasts.

This style of beer, which has a long and rich history, takes months or years to complete and can be unpredictable. It offers an incredibly nuanced and complex profile beyond the scope of many kettle sours and is accordingly sold at a higher price.

“While sour beer is a new idea to many people, acidity is just another age-old tool that can be used by brewers to create interesting and delicious beers, in a similar way that a chef might include acidity in a recipe through the use of citrus,” says Pestl, whose team is famous for creating sour ale favourites such as Jelly King, which has juicy, refreshing hints of fuzzy peach and tangerine.

“More than anything, I think sour beers are becoming increasingly popular because they are often extremely accessible,” he says.