I remember it like it was yesterday, a regret I still have to this day – it was a November day in 2024 when my friend, New York Beer Project Beer Lodge head brewer John Hyman, texted me to see if I wanted to come hang out while he filled the koelschip in Orchard Park for the very first time. Well, I couldn’t make it (stupid work), and I’m still kicking myself for not being there.
Fast forward nearly two years and the reward for all of that hard work on that fateful autumn day has finally arrived – Peche Spon 2024, a spontaneously fermented lambic-style ale and the first beer to ever come from NYBP’s koelschip.
Quick side note – a koelschip is an open-top vessel used to rapidly cool hot wort via evaporation, allowing ambient wild yeasts and microorganisms to inoculate the wort and resulting in a spontaneously fermented beer. It is traditionally used in European brewing.
Peche Spon is a wild ale inoculated with native Orchard Park wild yeast and microflora, which then underwent a spontaneous fermentation in Red Zinfandel barrels for another 12 months before select barrels were blended and conditioned on fresh, whole Niagara County-grown peaches for an additional six months in an American oak foeder.
“This beer was then bottle conditioned to perfection, resulting in a continuously evolving, beautiful and elegant beer with distinguishable funk and complexity and delicate notes of ripe peach,” New York Beer Project says. “Many years in the making – this glorious beer was uniquely crafted for special occasions and to be enjoyed with friends and family, and true beer aficionados!”
Peche Spon was perhaps the best beer I had earlier this year at the Brewer’s Invitational beer festival at the Beer Lodge and I have been bugging John for a proper release ever since. That sneak peek was more of a tease, as I had to wait nearly three months for more.
The resulting beer is funky, light bodied and approachable, with flavors of juicy peach backed by tart lemon, to go along with underlying notes of horse blanket, wet hay, acid and brett.
Peche Spon 2024 is available on tap and in bottles at all of the brewery’s New York locations.
In my opinion, we need more beers like Peche Spon locally and I am happy as hell to have NYBP investing the time and effort to bring them to light. Looking forward, John tells me that the plan is a Raspberry version, along with a Kriek (cherry) in the future. I’ll see you all at the bar when those get released.
Brian Campbell is co-founder and Brand Manager of the Buffalo Beer League, and writes the weekly Buffalo Beer Buzz column. If you have beer news that should be included in the Beer Buzz, Brian can be reached at brian@buffalobeerleague.com, on X (@buffbeerleague), Instagram, Threads and Untappd (@buffalobeerleague), and Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague).
