When it comes to a Wheat beer as a base, Charlotte’s Birdsong Brewing isn’t shy of adding in adjuncts.
An American Wheat recently released a new brand named Rindstone Cowboy and the wordplay matches nicely as the beer incorporates watermelon as the adjunct addition.
Working with watermelon and achieving the flavors needed to get past the consumer’s conception of what watermelon tastes and smells like can be a challenge. For one, most watermelon flavors to the common consumer can be in the mindseye in the category of candy watermelon.
Utilizing watermelon puree was the key to Birdsong’s release, explained co-founders Chris and Tara Goulet.
“There’s a lot of extra water in watermelon, so it can be tricky knowing how much to add,” they told Brewer Mag. “Too much will water down the beer, too little, and the flavor won’t come through.
“The nice thing about the watermelon puree compared to other fruit purees is that it’s smoother and less chunky. So, it’s easier to incorporate into the beer.”
Birdsong brewed a pilot batch last year of 50 gallons and called it Drunk in Love.
“That beer enabled us to learn how much watermelon puree we needed to use to get just the right amount of watermelon flavor,” the Goulets said.
So with names like Drunk in Love (a Beyonce song) and Rindstone Cowboy (Glen Campbell), it’s obvious that Birdsong likes the play on words and the interplay between music and beer.
But what comes first, the song or the beer?
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“It could really go either way,” they said. “Sometimes we’re inspired to brew a beer because we’ve been listening to a particular album or song. Other times, we’ve developed a beer and need to find a good song name to pair with it.”
When the song comes first, they said it can save the marketing team from doing the work of coming up with a good song name.
“But it also might be a song that the marketing team doesn’t think will fit on a label or the sales team doesn’t think it will draw enough attention,” they said. “The best scenario is when the name is an obvious choice and the whole team agrees that it’s a winner.
“Rindstone Cowboy is a name that came after the beer was created, and everyone on the team loves it.”
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