Liquid Assets: B is for Blueberry

Photography By Jonathan Fredin Apr 1, 2025

Winner of the Maggy Award for Best Craft Brewery

Fruit used in wine and cider production is pressed, leaving behind skins as a waste product. But according to Bond Brothers Beer Company co-founder and brewmaster Whit Baker, “The skins of fruit have most of the flavor leftover in them.”

So the brewery partners with farmhouse cider and winemaker Botanist and Barrel, located about 45 minutes from Cary, giving their pressed skins a second life as a flavoring for a special line of sour beers.

“The cool thing is we are using another beverage company’s waste,” Whit says. And the result is delicious.

The process starts by brewing a standard beer, which then goes into a large wooden vessel called a foeder with a house souring culture of wild yeast and bacteria to referment for up to a year. Fruit skins are added for “a couple weeks to a month, until it tastes right,” Whit says.

In the case of B is for Blueberry, the fruit comes from Cedar Grove Blueberry Farm, which houses Botanist and Barrel.

After the brew picks up the right amount of fruity flavor, it’s bottled, but a bit differently than a typical beer. It goes into the vessel flat, or without carbonation, along with local honey from Garden Supply Company. The wild yeast and bacteria consume the sugar and produce carbonation right in the bottle (or keg).

These special sours are true one-off brews. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Limited quantities of the first in the series, A is for Apricot, remain and are available at the brewery.

The series will continue with releases “probably every 9 months or so,” according to Whit. Up next: C is for Cherry.

About Bond Brothers

Cary’s first downtown brewery, Bond Brothers was founded in 2015 and specializes in ales, lagers, mixed fermentation, and barrel-aged beer. They strive to put a spin on old-school classics to create new-school originals.

The brewery and bar is located on E. Cedar Street in Cary. A weekly Run Club meets up on Tuesday nights for a 3- or 5-mile run through downtown Cary. Bond Brothers Eastside doubles as a music venue, hosting acts from rock to reggae every week. Open-mic nights and bluegrass and jazz jam sessions round out the calendar. A new location in Terminal 2 of RDU will open this summer, featuring a special beer, No Turbulence IPA, brewed exclusively for the airport.

bondbrothersbeer.com

Liquid Assets: B is for Blueberry

from Bond Brothers Beer Company

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