Sanguine—the Belgian-inspired, hop-forward pale ale from Atlanta that this magazine named one of its Best 20 Beers in 2022—is a harmonious marriage of hops and yeast.
The beer “balances moderately expressive fermentation—some fruity esters and a light touch of spice—with zesty hops,” our editors write. “Lemon, lime, herbs, and pepper sprawl across the canvas of lightly sweet pilsner malt, before the bitterness takes charge and keeps you coming back.”
Shawn Cooper and Joran Van Ginderachter, cofounders of Halfway Crooks, had a vision for this beer from the earliest days of conceiving their brewery, which they opened in 2019. “We wanted to serve low-alcohol beers,” Cooper says. “We both love Taras Boulba. We wanted one of our mainstays to be a Belgian pale ale.”
The duo had specific traits in mind.
In 2011, the Belgian-born Van Ginderachter also had cofounded Verzet in West Flanders, where they’ve long brewed a beer called Super NoAH. Its name is an acronym. “It means ‘no American hops,’” Cooper says. Instead, the pale ale of 4.9 percent ABV is packed with Belgian-grown hops.
“There’s also Taras Boulba,” Cooper says of the bitter, floral, dry, Noble hop–saturated pale ale of 4.5 percent ABV from the Brasserie de la Senne in Brussels. “You can’t even really touch it. It’s a lot of brewers’ desert-island beer.”
Cooper and Van Ginderachter knew that they wanted something along the lines of those two beers—“subtle, yet complex,” Cooper says. Yet finding that balance would prove challenging.
Dialing in the Hop Character
Sanguine was among the first beers they brewed at Halfway Crooks, and the original recipe called for German hops. “It was what we could get,” Cooper says.
In their second year, the team formed a relationship with Forrest Farm in Warneton, Hainaut, on the French border and not far southeast of Poperinge—the town most often associated with Belgian hops. (Forrest Farm’s notable clients include the nearby De Ranke brewery, which uses its whole cones year-round.)
Halfway Crooks added Forrest Farm to their existing imported hop orders, and suddenly they were receiving Belgian-grown Brewers Gold, East Kent Goldings—and a once-wild hop called 7784, named for the farm’s postal code. That hop, found in 1994, “kind of reminds me of Amarillo and its story,” Cooper says, referring to that hop’s accidental discovery in Washington state in 1990.
The 7784 hop is expressive, he says. “You’re getting a lot more fennel, spicy, pepper characteristics,” he says. “Any expression from German hops, it’s kind of amplified. American hops are very, very expressive. German hops are kind of subtle. [These] Belgian hops are in between.”
In their case, the terroir of the hops seems to have more influence than the traits of specific varieties. The Belgian hops can be interchangeable—as when this beer gets a charge of Belgian-grown Cascades in the whirlpool. “It’s extremely orange zest,” Cooper says. “Very citrusy and kind of in-between a lemon and an orange.”
That whirlpool addition provides most of the hop flavor. Because the beer is naturally carbonated, Cooper sees no reason to open up the fermentor for a dry-hop addition. “Some of the Noble hops can start to get into an intense, vegetal-like, green-tea or hay character” when dry-hopped, Cooper says. Instead, they pack them into the whirlpool.
The beer is bitter, too–to the tune of just over 50 IBUs. “We want a lot of hop presence in this beer,” Cooper says. “And all of our saisons [also] have a significant hop presence.”
A Three-Strain Blend
Cooper says the ingredients for the beer have been somewhat fluid—except when it comes to yeast. That is consistent with Sanguine. It’s also unique.
“A lot of saisons in America, especially cleaner ones, were very ester-forward to me, with not a lot of hop character,” Cooper says. When trying to balance the characters driven by the yeast and hops, they looked for a relatively neutral strain—“understated, subtle,” Cooper says—yet one that still had some of the hallmark Belgian qualities.
Instead of one strain, they chose three.
To reach their goal, Cooper and Van Ginderachter arrived at a blend of two dried ale strains and one lager. The “base” yeast is Fermentis SafLager W-34/70, making up 70 percent of the blend by weight. Then, SafAle S-33 makes up 27 percent, while SafAle T-58 makes up just 3 percent. Cooper says the more neutral character of the 34/70 and S-33 strains really helps to temper the spicy T-58, while the fermentation still produces some desirable Belgian-ish esters.
They ferment Sanguine at about 64–65°F (18°C) in noninsulated, glycol-chilled transport vessels. “We’ve tried different temperatures, but this gives us the expression that we want [and] a healthy fermentation between all three yeasts,” Cooper says.
Sulfur can be a problem. They’ll condition the beer at 50°F (10°C) for three weeks, and that can help drive away the sulfur—but they’ve also, at times, had to blow it off just before packaging. “It’s one of the hardest beers we make,” Cooper says. “It’s just very finicky, and you need to taste it. But when it’s done right, it’s beautiful.”
A Brewers’ Beer
Why Sanguine? The name stands for optimism and for being at ease.
“We named this beer with the optimism that people would fall in love with it,” Cooper says. “We [hoped] it would embody our vision of a community-driven space, one that offered lower-ABV options and became a place to be at ease for a post-work beer or gathering of the community around us.”
How has that fared for Halfway Crooks, more than five years on?
“I don’t really know anyone who comes here for these types of beers anymore,” Cooper says. “They’re definitely falling out of favor with most craft-beer drinkers.” Still, he says Sanguine sells enough for the brewery to keep making it—even if, sometimes, the brewers feel like they’re just making it for themselves. “I hope that [changes] one day.”
Meanwhile, the beer does have some dedicated fans who are grateful that it remains a fixture. “We chased this beer for four years, trying to find the flavor profile,” Cooper says. “This is where we ended up.”
