Creature Comforts and Jester King to Release Mutualism Farmhouse Lager

30 Jun 2016 --- Creature Comforts Brewing Company collaborated with Austin, TX brewery Jester King to brew Mutualism, a Southern Style Farmhouse Lager. The beer was packaged in 750-mL bottles and will be released on July 14 at Creature Comforts.

The base beer for Mutualism is a pilsner brewed using local wheat and grits from Georgia-based DaySpring Farms. The finished pilsner underwent a secondary fermentation with a blend of both Creature Comforts’ and Jester King’s house-mixed cultures of yeast and bacteria. The beer was then bottle conditioned for five months.

“We both have a strong admiration for beers that represent a time and a place, so from the beginning we wanted to merge our house flavors to represent our places coming together and the South,” said Creature Comforts Wood Cellar and Specialty Brand Manager Blake Tyers. “We decided to blend our house mixed cultures and also use grits, sourced from local Georgia DaySpring Farms, to represent a staple in Southern homes.”

Mutualism is dry, round and defined with a 5.5-percent ABV. The brew has an aroma of minerality, citrus zest, pear skin, floral hops and rustic grains. The flavor of Mutualism follows the aroma with a light, bright acidity and finishes with minerality and a continental hop bitterness.

“Mutualism really speaks to the common philosophies between Creature Comforts and Jester King,” said Jester King Founder Jeffrey Stuffings. “We love crisp, hoppy lagers and mixed culture fermentation farmhouse ales, and this beer combines the two approaches. Plus, it was great to work with Creature Comforts! They’re great people and feel like a sibling brewery to us.”

Athens-based illustrator and Creature Comforts Tour Staff member, Melissa Merrill, designed the label art for Mutualism. The label depicts both breweries’ logos as one cohesive unit, representative of the symbiotic qualities of beer. Inspired by the collaborative brew, Merrill painted the original artwork for the label with a watercolor medium derived from the two breweries’ combined house-mixed cultures.

“The entire team is super proud of this beer,” said Tyers. “Balanced and complex, yet soft, it’s the beer we dreamed of making,”