Tired Hands – I See A Darkness

I See A Darkness.

A beer born out of friendship (long-distance, spontaneous, or otherwise), a fondness of music and beer (spontaneously fermented, or otherwise), and the sharing of thoughts (many times over).

I first met Will at our dear friend Tom Culton’s farm, in Lancaster many moons ago. It was a lively engagement that culminated in a quiet, star-lit, performance by Will and his bandmates and a group dinner consisting mainly of items that Tom had grown. Naturally, I supplied the beer. After many glasses of wine and beer, we got to talking about the allure of spontaneous fermentation, Pappy Van Winkle, distance, and our mutual love of dark beer. It was a killer evening.

I first met Tim and Adair of Sante Adairius (SARA) at our dear friend Shaun Hill’s house, in Vermont many moons ago. Shaun was hosting his annual Festival of Farmhouse Ales, and up until that point I had only had the pleasure of tasting a few of SARA’s beers. Over the course of the weekend, we brewed, laughed, and relaxed (I have photographic evidence of it, Tim!). We also uncovered a deep-running mutual respect for the music of Will Oldham. I think you can see where this whole thing is going…

Tim and I conceptualized I See a Darkness (the beer, not the hauntingly lovely song…) over the next few months. It was to be a very Robust Porter brewed with local honey (ours with Pennsylvania honey and theirs with California honey) and then conditioned on locally roasted coffee. We were shooting for 8.5% abv.

And, well, that’s what we did.

Will, being the beautiful and generous man that he is, drew us two very different illustrations to be used to represent each batch of I See a Darkness (see below). We will be brewing two batches of this beer. The first one, that we are tapping today, will be draft only. The second will see a very limited run of bottles to be adorned with Wills wonderful illustrations.

I hope you enjoy our iteration of I See a Darkness and that you Lie Down in the Light.

Jean Broillet IV