Crux Fermentation Project recently released the latest beer in its Coolship Experiment series, in which the brewery partnered with Rogue Creamery of Southern Oregon to produce a lambic-style ale inspired by the creamery’s Rogue River Blue cheese. The press release even indicated that the cheese itself was added to the beer.

Blue cheese in beer? Have no fear — according to brewmaster Cam O’Connor, “We didn’t actually put a wedge of cheese in the wort. We added tinfoil that contained the microflora that Rogue uses in their blue cheese.”

So while no cheese was harmed in the making, Crux Coolship Experiment No. 6 is a spontaneously fermented beer that had blue cheese culture added to it to help kick off fermentation.

I’ve written about the Coolship series from Crux several times before; it’s a project in which the brewery takes its portable coolship — a broad, shallow open-top vessel used to cool wort (unfermented beer) — to various locations and fills it with the hot liquid. As it cools in the open air, wild yeasts and bacteria native to the local environment land in the liquid to begin a wild fermentation.

Because each location has its own unique ecosystem of local organisms, every beer in the series likewise has a unique character based on the fermentation characteristics of the wild flora.

Rarefied air

For No. 6, Crux approached Rogue about a collaboration, and in 2021 the brewers brought the coolship to Rogue’s cheesemaking facility to park it inside overnight. As O’Connor indicated, they inoculated the wort with the same microorganisms that give Rogue River Blue cheese its character, Penicillium roqueforti. This fungus is responsible for the fermentation of the cheese and the blue veins it’s known for.

“Rogue has a room that they age their blue cheese in. The room was empty of cheese when we let the wort inoculate overnight,” O’Connor said via email. Exposing the wort to the same air the cheese ripens in ensured more of the native organisms would help to ferment it.

“We were able to coordinate this project with them so that we backed our coolship into the room a day or two before they were going to do their yearly cleaning on the room.”

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Afterward, Crux brought the beer back to Bend where it aged for nearly two years in oak barrels.

The base recipe for the beer is fairly simple, consisting of wheat, pilsner malt and two-row pale malt, with Hersbrucker and Saaz hops. “We also added lactose to this recipe so the blue cheese microflora had some nutrients to ferment,” said O’Connor. The complexity derives from the wild yeast and bacteria as well as the oak barrel aging.

Does it taste cheesy?

Coolship Experiment No. 6 is 8.2% alcohol by volume. I picked up a bottle to review, and I’ll set your mind at ease right away: The beer does not smell or taste like blue cheese.

It pours a dark orange color with a hazy appearance and a fleeting light tan colored head of foam. There’s a fair amount of oakiness in the aroma, along with an herbal-earthy quality and a slight funk that admittedly is a bit like a blue cheese funkiness. A tart note comes into play at the back that is a touch fruity.

Oaky tannins with a hint of acetone and that subtle funkiness are present in the flavor as well, along with a light lactic acid tang. I get some nice malt character with honey and biscuit notes which contribute the other elements for a nice complexity, including some grassiness, fruit skin, and oak chips. It’s vinous in the mouthfeel and the tannins contribute to a dry finish.

Not surprisingly, it’s a beer that begs to be paired with blue cheese and would hold its own against a variety of cheeses, starting with the blue of course.

You can find Crux Coolship Experiment No. 6 at the Crux tasting room, available in 750 milliliter bottles as well as on tap.

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