The Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer is a legendary beer festival and competition held annually in Chicago. Each year breweries from across the U.S. enter their barrel-aged creations for judging, hoping to earn a coveted medal in one of 13 categories. As expected from a competition highlighting barrel-aged beer, most entries are high ABV bruisers where a couple sips is all the flavor and alcohol a drinker could reasonably handle.

Milieu Fermentation Company of Aurora, Colorado, bucked the trend by entering smol., a 2.7% ABV barrel-aged mixed culture ale made in collaboration with Baere Brewing Company in neighboring Denver. For their effort, they were handsomely rewarded with a gold medal in the Wild Beer Mixed Culture (Acidic) category, a huge honor for a tiny beer. 

It’s so tiny, in fact, that its name is a nod to a stylized spelling of “small,” complete with lowercase “s” and a period at the end.

Small Beer, Big Win

Andrew Bergeron and Rob Bessett, co-owners of Milieu and originally from the Chicago area, say they were shocked and thrilled to have won gold at FOBAB.

“This festival is really special for both of us being from Chicago,” says Bessett. “Winning any medal, let alone a gold at FOBAB was a huge surprise for both Andrew and myself. This was totally evident by the dumbfounded looks on our faces as Marty Scott from Revolution Brewing called out the results.”

The brewers who had gone West managed to come home and win gold — it’s a story designed to pull on the heartstrings and an honor that Bergeron and Bessett will not soon forget. 

“We were very fortunate to have been invited to compete and have our beers poured at FOBAB,” Bessett says.

It’s Only Natural

How did smol. get to the point of winning festival gold? It all started with Bessett doing some yard work.

“I was harvesting lavender in my yard when the idea for the beer came to me,” Bessett says. “I have always been inspired by Northern European brewing techniques, specifically ones that involve the use of wood, as well as the foraging methods and complete utilization of an ingredient by breweries like Scratch in Ava, Illinois.”

Bessett also knew he wanted to have some partners in the smol. endeavor.

“I am close friends with Matt Schenck [head brewer at Baere] and Ryan Skeels [former co-owner], so I immediately reached out to them while standing outside, sweating in the blazing sun to see if they wanted to get involved with my crazy idea,” Bessett says. “It was a resounding yes, obviously.”

Sometimes the wildest ideas need willing co-conspirators.

With the lavender from his yard, Bessett made lavender bark tea to be used in smol. This was mixed with a low ABV table beer recipe and fermented using Milieu’s house blend of yeast cultures. Harking back to the use of natural ingredients, he used whole navel oranges in the mash for pH adjustments. The beer was then aged in some barrels that had previously held Baere’s Saison, picking up some of its microbes.

The result was full flavor nearly unheard of in a beer weighing in at 2.7% ABV. Bessett describes smol. as presenting “with a balanced acidity, effervescent aromas of stone fruit and citrus, and a tropical funk that also lends some traditional saison characteristics.”

There is a lot going on in this tiny package.

Big Flavor

Milieu was gracious enough to provide the PorchDrinking team with a sample of smol. to taste. The mixed culture ale pours a light straw into the glass with a fair bit of carbonation from locally sourced wildflower honey and minimal head retention. The nose is quite funky with hints of lemony citrus. The mouthfeel on smol. is phenomenal as it presents simultaneously light yet with noticeable body. There is a slight acidity and great funk to the beer. After the initial light sour punch, notes of peach, lemon and a slight grassy hay roll in, hinting at some of its natural origins. The beer is anything but smol in flavor. smol.’s complexity arrives in waves from funk to fruit to earthy elements, and seemingly every sip and subsequent aftertaste leaves something new to consider. 

smol. is impressive in what it achieves with such low alcohol content, and this is undoubtedly a big reason why it earned FOBAB gold. With the spring harvest around the corner, Milieu plans to make smol. again. Their team also has some other tricks up their funky sleeves with an upcoming mixed culture saison being added to their core lineup.

“I won’t spoil the surprise of the details just yet, but expect there to be can-conditioned saison available for everyday consumption very soon from Milieu,” Bessett says.

With fermentation in their brewery’s name, it is no surprise to see Milieu experimenting with mixed fermentation, and it is great to see them make a name for themselves with their creative brews.

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