
Learn’d Astronomer is a blend of sour blond & sour red ales, refermented on 3 lbs. per gallon of raspberries. The raspberry level is pretty intense! The average time the beer spent in barrels was 1.5 years.
The name is a reference to a Walt Whitman poem:
“When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.”
-To us, this poem speaks to the somewhat magical nature of brewing sour beer. It does not stand up to over-analysis. It is navigated by taste, feel, and an unending search for natural beauty.