B-Funk is Lakewood's latest Barrelworks brew

Image courtesy of Lakewood Brewing Co.

Lakewood Brewing Co. of Garland has announced the release of B-Funk, a new wild farmhouse ale from the brewery's Barrelworks program.

Three years in the making, B-Funk is the latest realization of what Lakewood describes as "a slowly growing and evolving sour and mixed-culture program." The beer is a blend of barrel-aged saisons from three different years with brettanomyces, lactobacillus and pediococcus cultures. It was packaged in 375 mL green, champagne-like bottles, then corked and capped before a multiple-month rest to allow it to naturally carbonate in the bottle.

"We've been playing around with wild beers since we started, but now that we have multiple years of barrel-aged beers in the cellar, the program is finally coming into its own," says Wim Bens, founder and president of Lakewood. "The ability to blend different vintages or even different beers together really increases our innovative edge."

B-Funk is only the second Barrelworks beer to see wide release, following Wild Manimal which first appeared on draft in 2015. Subsequent entries in the series, Cuvée de Vélo (three-year wild sour ale blend) and Passion Pony (wild ale with passion fruit), have only been sold in Lakewood's taproom.

"We’ve learned a lot from those previous beers, and B-Funk is a great example of getting all the things right," explains Bens. "We used a variety of old-world techniques and the result is amazing."

Look for B-Funk to be available on a limited basis in and around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with bottles and kegs hitting the market in September.