Milieu Fermentation Company | smol.

March 25, 2025 | Britt Antley

The Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer is a legendary beer festival and competition held annually in Chicago. Each year breweries from across the U.S. enter their barrel-aged creations for judging, hoping to earn a coveted medal in one of 13 categories. As expected from a competition highlighting barrel-aged beer, most entries are high ABV bruisers where a couple sips is all the flavor and alcohol a drinker could reasonably handle.

Milieu Fermentation Company of Aurora, Colorado, bucked the trend by entering smol., a 2.7% ABV barrel-aged mixed culture ale made in collaboration with Baere Brewing Company in neighboring Denver. For their effort, they were handsomely rewarded with a gold medal in the Wild Beer Mixed Culture (Acidic) category, a huge honor for a tiny beer. 

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milieu fermentation company | Opening Weekend Preview

May 1, 2024 | Britt Antley

Opening a brewery is a journey full of challenging times and rewarding payoffs. For every newly installed and wrenched tapline spewing precious liquid across the countertop upon first test, there is the hard earned reward of that very first draft pour. Rob Bessett and Andrew Bergeron, co-owners of milieu fermentation company (pronounced mil-you) in Aurora, just outside of Denver, know all too well the difficult work that has gone into preparing their brewery for its opening weekend on May 4. Now that the date is set and the opening is just around the corner, PorchDrinking took some time to check out their renovated taproom and chat about what the future holds for milieu.

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