Check out our current selection of Pastry Beers:
Pastry Stouts: https://www.bucketboys.com.au/collections/pastry-stouts
Pastry / Smoothie Sours: https://www.bucketboys.com.au/collections/pastry-sours-smoothie-sours
Pastry Stouts, Smoothie Sours...double-dipped fudge marshmallow chocolate peanut butter lava cake stouts...here is the lowdown on everything pastry-related in the beer world.
A Bit Of Background:
Pastry beers have risen to popularity primarily from two complementary concepts. The first being the notion of brewer curiosity and experimentation synonymous with craft beer in general. The second being a desire to stand out from the crowd and create something unique and mind-altering.
Craft beer has always been a safe harbour for exploration and experimentation. Before there were pastry stouts there were big hazy IPAs. Before the haze-craze, there was an IBU arms race. Before the IBU arms race there was a craving to "americanise" classic European styles.
All this is an oversimplification of the history of craft beer, but it does follow a common thread: craft breweries will always innovate. Whether it be in process or efficiency, or by playing around with new ingredients to create something unique. Along with this aspect is the relationship between craft brewing and culinary arts. The innate desire to distill a favourite food into liquid form has always intrigued brewers and distillers, and this natural evolution has lead to the rise of these heavily adjunct monstrosities, or to put it in a more positive way, has lead to the rise of these magical concoctions bursting with flavour.
What Are They:
The name pastry pretty much sums up the basics. Pastry beers are essentially beers made to mimic pastries and desserts in beer form. The rise of a related subcategory of Smoothie Sours which should be included in this breakdown means your favourite dessert, pastry, cake or even fruit smoothie can now be consumed as a beer.
So how are they made, well there isn't a formal process defined yet. Essentially they are made by using quite a large amount of adjuncts. Adjuncts are any source of fermentable sugar not coming from malt. This could include anything from traditional adjuncts such as unmalted wheat, oats and other grains, to things like fruit, chocolate and other sweeter adjuncts commonly used in Pastry beers.
Pastry beers fall into two broad categories: Pastry Stouts and Pastry Sours.
Pastry Stouts: Dark in colour and usually brewed to mimic a certain dessert, these beers can vary in ABV and usually contain lactose (but not always).
Pastry Sours: Usually very opaque and striking in colour variation. These beers are usually made to mimic a smoothie or fruited dessert and can vary in IBU. Many of these beers would utilise lactose and/or vanilla (but not always).
The backbone of these beers is the culinary aspect of their inspiration which drives the brewing process and flavour choices. These beers are almost always on the sweeter side with a high amount of residual sugars, however the best of them seem to delicately straddle the fence between sweet and cloying,
How Do I Try?
We have put together two collections on the website so you can look through our collection of pasty stouts and pastry sours. While the USA is leading the way in these categories, Australia has also started to make some wonderful versions of both styles!
Pastry Stouts: https://www.bucketboys.com.au/collections/pastry-stouts
Pastry / Smoothie Sours: https://www.bucketboys.com.au/collections/pastry-sours-smoothie-sours