Take a look at any of the best Wild Ale breweries in the country and you’ll see them reusing barrels, recycling ingredients, and consolidating recipes. 

Among them is one of Untappd’s Top Rated Breweries: Colorado’s Black Project.

This GABF award-winning crew really takes the old adage, “waste not, want not” to heart when they craft today’s REHEAT Wild Ale. 

Starting with a Golden Sour base, the brewers allow it to rest on the juice of locally-sourced wine grapes in neutral oak barrels for a few weeks. Once ready, they empty the barrels and that beer is bottled.

Then commences Operation “REHEAT,” where today’s 4.18 UT-rated sipper comes to form. We snagged the top-secret step-by-step plan from the brewery:

1. DO NOT rinse and/or steam beer-wine hybrid barrels.
2. Reintroduce Golden Sour base to the barrel.
3. Add fresh coolship wort on top of the 2-5 gallons of previous-use “dregs” (a.k.a., leftover yeasts and souring microbes in the barrel).
4. Allow the beer to referment (reheat) with the help of native yeasts still present from the grape skins .
5. Once all the fruity flavor of the dregs is absorbed, it’s time to empty it out and bottle it up!

Black Project’s REHEAT process results in a Wild Ale with sweet n’ tart, tannic complexity that’s totally unique from any other beer in their star-studded lineup. It’s cleaner and lighter than single-fermentation Ales, and it carries a hint of grape character that makes it an easy drinker for anytime sipping.

And this is the first time ever that REHEAT is leaving the taproom in cans!

If you’re lucky enough to score a few, only share it with friends who will appreciate its unique flavors and the painstaking process behind them.

Because you really don’t want to waste this one-of-a-kind Wild Ale wonder on an undiscerning palate!

Rated 4.18 on Untappd; 90/100 on BeerAdvocate

Packaged On October 9th, 2019

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