Beyond maneuvering time and limitations of physical space there exists the reality of certain batches never fully developing the way Funk would like. The amount that gets tossed in his limited time in dealing with mature product has proved to be a bit of a mystery. Up until this season, few barrels have been dumped, while this season seems to have provided more challenges in hitting the flavor profile he prefers. Funks fears about 20% of this year’s mature barrels may need to be dumped and he isn’t clear on what happened.

“I hop pretty aggressively,” he says. “There’s more hops in our wort than a lot of IPAs. I think the hops are having an interaction with the yeast that’s creating the phenols, even though the bitterness has aged out of them. It’s kind of a puzzle to figure out what works and what doesn’t from season to season. That’s the beauty of spontaneous fermentation. Or is it the ugly side? It could go either way.”

Whatever survives the long aging process is finally ready to be blended. Funk pores over the barrel stock to find the right flavor profiles that complement and build off of each other, and he then selects four barrels that are racked into a tote to create the final blend. Sometimes fruit is added, sometimes not. The beer sits in the totes for anywhere from four weeks to three months, when the Lambic is then racked off of the fruit and ready for bottling. It conditions for another three to six months in bottles before it’s sold.