Most seasons in Oklahoma are unpredictable and annoying to say the least. Spring could mean 100 degree heat waves, severe weather-filled afternoons, or sub-freezing temperatures. Summers are generally miserable, and winters oscillate between mild temps and unholy ice storms. Fall in Oklahoma, however, is always a beautiful thing and something that Oklahomans look forward to every year. College football, changing leaves, and the singular showcase of what the state has to offer: The Great State Fair of Oklahoma.
Krebs, Oklahoma based brewery Prairie Artisan Ales has just announced their plans to take the essence of the Fair to a new level with their State Fair Coolship this fall.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar, a coolship is a large, open, rectangular pan used to cool beer quickly. Due to the large surface area of the cooling wort, the vessel also serves to grab all kinds of ambient yeasts and other things floating around in the air producing spontaneously fermented ales full of complex flavors from their environments.
The State Fair Coolship will take this idea a step further. Prairie’s plan is to blend the products of multiple coolships placed strategically around the Oklahoma Stat Fairgrounds during the 10 day event in September. “We wanted to make sure we represent all of our favorite things about the Fair” stated Zach Prichard of PAA. “My favorite part of the Fair is the food, so we needed to figure out a way to get a coolship in that area which was probably the biggest challenge of the whole project.”
To capture the Fair food aspect, the Prairie team worked out a deal with the huge red tent that makes the Jumbo Turkey Legs to allow a coolship to sit near the smokers and absorb those delicious flavors. “Since it’s already screened in the fairgoers won’t be able to mess with it, it seemed like a good spot” said Prichard.
Other notable coolship spots will include the car building, which will layer in interesting notes of new car smell and unrealistic dreams of owning that brand new $74,000 Ford Raptor, the livestock building which will contribute incredible amounts of earthy vibes as well as every kind of animal blanket you could imagine, and there will even be one at the top of the long abandoned Space Needle. The idea is that it will pick up some microflora from the higher elevation that wouldn’t be present at ground level, adding to the overall complexity of the brew.
Once the yeast and bacteria have done their work in each respective location, the worts will be blended then aged in large oak Foeders for an additional 10 days. The beer will be released by Prairie in 500ml corked and caged bottles to its Prairie Dawg members, which will probably be enough to make me sign up for this year’s membership. I can only imagine this will be the hottest trade bait on the market after it’s released, and would expect it to dwarf the secondary value we saw on the first batch of Pirate Paradise.
This beer gives Oklahomans yet another reason to look forward to fall, and we can’t wait to try it.
Cheers to the great folks at Prairie, and happy April 1st everyone.