First of the Piney River Farm Raised Beers…Lizzie Twister

We’ve made a new beer that’s selling like hot cakes this summer in the tap room. Lizzie Twister is a Berliner-style weisse beer which means that it’s a style of wheat beer traditionally made in Germany. In fact, a Berliner weisse is a tart wheat beer. This style of beer is also traditionally low ABV, so Lizzie is a mere 4% which is nice and easy on a hot day in the Ozarks.

To make this beer, we brewed the beer then pithed lactobacillus into the beer while it was in the fermentation vessel. The lactobacillus when used properly gives the beer a slightly tart flavor.

This is the first beer of this type that we’ve made. We needed to wait until we had a separate brewing space for beers that have things like lactobacillus in them. That’s what we’re using our first brew space–the BARn–for these days. And we’re calling these beers “Farm Raised”.

Right now Lizzie Twister is only in kegs, so we’ve had it at some events like the Springfield Craft Beer Bash and a St. Louis Craft Beer Week tap takeover at Three Kings in Des Peres. We’ll have it at the Great Arkansas Beer Fest this weekend. And we’re serving up pints of it all weekend, every weekend at the BARn tap room. We’re filling cr0wlers and growlers with it, too.

So let me tell you a little story about how the name Lizzie Twister came to be…

Waaay back, a long time ago, maybe even back in our home brewer days, Brian and I heard about this spot on the Big Piney River. This spot is upstream from us. It’s not even a spot we know well, but the spot has a great name…Lizzie Twister.

Brian and I both remember seeing that name on a river map and thinking to ourselves and saying to each other, “That would be a great beer name.” So we tucked Lizzie Twister away for a long time until the “right” beer came along that should be named Lizzie Twister.

Got a slightly tart, easy drinking beer? Got the name Lizzie Twister? Seemed like a match made in heaven.

If you’re like us, you know there isn’t a hill or holler or river bend in the Ozarks that isn’t named something for some reason. How in the world did a spot on the Big Piney River get named Lizzie Twister? Here’s what we’ve been told:

The Jackson Brothers were at wit’s end. Their raft had hung up in the bend below Hell’s Roaring Rocky Shoals on the Big Piney. It was hot, the river had been low, and now they were faced with untangling the mess that had occurred that day.

It was late in the day, they had some homebrew and food along, so they decided to just build a small campfire before dark, heat up some beans, have a brew or two before bedtime, and tackle their problem in the morning.

Right before getting the bedrolls out, there was a noise in the woods next to the gravel bar. They wondered what kind of critter would be coming toward the fire and the voices.

Out of the woods stepped Lizzie from Hazleton Springs. She had heard the voices from up river, walked down to check the boys out. The Jackson Brothers knew her well.

“Hey, Lizzie, we are in a jam,” they said. “Our raft is all twisted up. Can you help?”

Lizzie gave the boys a sly look from corner of her eyes. She clucked her tongue, put her hands on her hips and asked, “It depends. Do you have any Hot Date Ale in a can?”

And all the problems were solved.

The End.

If you come to the BARn to try Lizzie Twister, you can enjoy it plain or with a shot of fruit syrup (which is also traditionally added to Berliner weisse beers in Germany). From left to right we’ve got Blackberry Lizzie Twister; Peach Lizzie Twister; Raspberry Lizzie Twister, or just the unflavored version of Lizzie Twister.