My latest article for The Bulletin dropped on Sunday, in which I write about Crux Fermentation Project’s limited-release Apricot Golden. I found this to be a really nice un-complicated fruit ale with some Belgian inflections, though the online headline on The Bulletin’s site says “reminiscent of Pyramid Apricot Ale” … to be fair, I did do a nostalgic callout to Pyramid, but that headline is a bit misleading. This beer stands on its own.

Crux kept a local focus in brewing this beer. The malt was sourced from Skagit Valley Malting out of Washington. The hops are from Goschie Farms in Independence. And the apricots came from an Thomas Orchards in Kimberly. The orchard is owned by the family of one of the brewers, Bianca Thomas.

Crux brewed 30 barrels of the beer and bottled 150 cases, with the rest available on draft. One hundred pounds of orchard apricots were used, according to head brewer Cam O’Connor.

“We de-pitted them, blended them up a little and put them in the hopback,” he said via email. The brewery further amped up the fruit presence with apricot puree from Oregon Fruit Products.

I do think it’s a suitably “old school” fruit ale that hits all the right marks for me.