Saison Sunday — Cellar Aged Series

A solemn moment of appreciation you are invited to be intentional while sipping. Our professional tasting group is open to all each session involves a finely crafted beverage and curated music listening. Posted below are selections by finding this page you can also cue a playlist and select a beverage for sipping.

Host Brewery:

Ozark Beer Company

Saison Sunday — Cellar Aged Series

Artisan ales finished with BLKMAN starter cultures. Bottle conditioned for long-term keeping available for purchase exclusively at the brewery. Stay tuned for scheduled events, listening sessions, and style talks curated by BlackMan Brewing.

Ozark Beer Company has hosted our collaboration series since 2022. We are unique in the way we co-exist.

What happened to domestic arts? The common work of people moving with dignity. The mundane peace found in crafting. The shear excellence of practicing. Making handmade goods and bespoke well-crafted wares. Great things made for exclusive markets.

I find solace in fermentation. The craft beer industry is faded. Lost its shine. I find myself dreaming. Standing still to wonder. Disoriented.

I've asked myself these questions: why beer, why yeast, why fermentation? I've not lost the humble art of small batch brewing. I learned the craft at home in my garage. Becoming familiar with yeast handling, bottle conditioning, and beers styled with rustic flavors. I found simple wild fermentations given time transform beers into creative expressions. Affirming dryness. Clarifying crispness. Beers that shimmer with nuance are not overwhelmingly single-ended. Wild ferments in moderate portions often lean toward high acidity. These days I prefer rustic ales with useful characteristics. Wild yeast tamed like a sourdough loaf. Artisanal reflection crafted by baker’s hands. The slow rise of craftsmanship is maintained by continual effort. Mundane labor honed into great skill. Mastery is affirmation.

The Saison Sunday series of beers is curated from exceptionally well-cellared bottles. Carried forward yeast lees or returning beers brewed in collaboration. Saison Sunday series reminds me to be intentional. I understand my reach is limited. I am making rustic ales for an esoteric crowd to enjoy. They like me are into exploration. We are seekers surprised by discovery.

The collaboration project is personal. Not focused on excess, but simply a way forward. The work holds space for creative expression. To create. To continue. To practice. Excellence in the mundane is self-mastery. Spiritual affirmation.

Ozark Beer Company has been a hermitage since 2022. Housed below in the cellar are conditioning yeast from my travels. A sanctum holding space for change. I often work alone. Cleaning. Racking. Blending. Bottling and waiting. Time gives space to story. I am encouraged to carry on. Seeking continuance. To live for something beyond. Creativity gives me hope. Creativity is an intentional vulnerability. The art of disclosure. Hidden in full view as nature ferments our environment changes and our climate shifts. We are vulnerable. Age allows a place for the unknown to rest.

Curating beer for sipping on Saison Sunday offers a healing disconnect. A time for self-care and inner personal story. Saison Sundays remind me that excellence of your own choosing reflects who you are. Mastery as a skill and not a destination. All life is rested peacefully in soil tombs your set of skills will expire. I owe a debt of gratitude to the people here. The instructors who have shaped me and those who have moved on. I am learning to let go. Allow others to have the same nomadic freedom. The people who walk with you traverse this life and the next.

I've cellared beers in curated spaces in the galleries of production breweries and in spaces that coexist. I consider this my community. The full person. The dreamer. The stranger. The wanderlust. I've made yeast my business starting with a collection of wild yeast and so learning to be with nature. I think about fermentation often. A few cultures have been with me over a decade. We have changed. Slowly forming. Maturing overtime. Bottle conditioning finished beer brings new life to new project. I am currently blending fermented beer at the brewery with my collection of yeast and microflora. The project is about continuance. Taking the time to focus on simple things. Domestic arts. The work is very labor-intensive. Rustic ales require an abundance of time, great hygiene, care and attention. Cellarmanship is the slow advancement of an intention. A good cellar must be maintained, things need to be moved, racked, tasted, or discarded. The work requires an honest approach with intentional navigation of the flavors.

I've recorded change. Like a diary of personal encounters, the notes are surprising. Things do not go as planned often our loss is great. Esoteric flavors are welcomed. Bio-transformations drop out and layer the beer as it matures. Not because it's bad but because those flavors in the moment, need to gas off. Release. Further time is needed to reach a simpler form. Rustic beer changes to bring out less of its character to strip it down for renewed strength. The work is often to pull down the hop characteristics. Gravity to tame the bitterness to soothe a stubborn soul. More oxygen ingress. More acidity. Time for off gassing. The fusel alcohols of warm fermentation breath from barrel. Even its cellular structure softens warn crystalized precursors of tannins and enzymes are at work. Some yeast go the full cycle of life and death releasing their character into solution.

The road to bottling is different, each beer has its own signature. Its own persona. And history. New life begins and so the cellar holds a mystery unknown. Things retire sometimes before expectation like growing old with bad knees. They function but they also ache. The pain is in the body. Strength is lost. Intensity no longer remains. Wisdom is gained from personal perspective. Through the beer alone.

Currently barrel aging our last batch of session India Pale Ale (IPA) it's been conditioning since 2024. Meaning beer origin once held such stylish distinction but the beer is IPA no longer. The barrel plus a cultural dosage of wild yeast from Costa Rica have strip bare the hops once vibrant in their youth. The barrel is maintained with a yearly float of fresh IPA topped up in full measure. I've pulled from the barrel twice bottling in 2025 and again for 2026. The culture has tropical fruit aroma that meets the flavor of lambic-ish-unblended-oude-ale. Its nature is wild like a tide pool in a warm Pacific Ocean. The culture was spontaneous, a 24-hour open fermentation in the tropics. Lambica Tropical bottle lees stepped up in increasing capacity. The barrel received a strong pitch at the time of IPA introduction. The flavor is rewarding. The barrel is neutral. A wooden stage for oxygen ingress and bacteria. I am most excited about what happens there.

The beer cellar at Ozark Beer Company has quite a collection of resident rustic ales. Lacie Bray and Andy Coates are holding space for creative reasoning. The brewery is a center for community development at large. The team has been a consistent joy improving while remaining close nit. Shared effort is at work with genuine response.

Northwestern Arkansas attracts locals and trail biking tourists. I have grown accustomed to corporate conversation with families shifting gears through the life cycles. Many have relocated on two-year assignments. They are embracing an insular new life. Personal introductions can feel monolithic yet imaginary like a bubble. The regulars see me on occasion and so remember an old face. My beard has greyed like chivalry. I am far less nomadic. Conversations continue with small talk of squirrel dust and toy trains. The kids appear with sidewalk chalk. I return seeking parts unknown. Head Brewer Brant points me in the direction of stashed away barrel bungs and stoppers.

I'm back in the cellar journaling notes. We are sampling the wild Lake Atalanta cultures. Specimen #1 (Tree Bark) is preferred in flavor and aroma. I've discarded the others yet prepared Specimen Combo #A/B (Tree Bark/Air Capture) for conditioning an aggressively hopped hazy IPA. Specimen #2 (Air Capture) the underperformer lacked flavor. We are conditioned fermented beer with the native yeast at bottling. Time in the cellar sampling aged bottles will determine successful flavors.

The Lake Atalanta wild culture has been a selective process. We are working to identify local culture from Rogers, Arkansas’ ambient bacteria and microflora. Conditioning fermented beer in this way takes a unique direction. The pH stability from fermentation will determine the base beer. The antimicrobial properties of hops help to stabilize bottle conditioning. The wild natural culture is at work scavenging oxidants under constrained anaerobic fermentation. The culture is alive creating carbonation in the bottle.

As consumers the cellar aged series is an invitation into curiosity. We are examining flavor development and signature expression earmarked by time, place, and story.

Blending and hand bottling wild ales with industry friends is an intentional rebellion. I prefer beers with yeast contact for long term aging. I continue to promote wild expression as well as beer in glass bottles. Working with the team at Ozark has been a joy. We are creating community one beer at a time. The area deservers this type of presence where we collaborate making a long-lasting impact for the sake of holding space. I enjoy wild crafting with nature. The yeasts are collections from my travels. They have morphed and shifted as much as I. Their natural expressions continue with maturity. So has the craft beer culture we once knew. I am inspired by the next challenge. My work will be to chart a new course while also creating community.

Curated Playlist:

Sunday Op. #73 — A jazzy classical composition with touches of traditional.

A moment of musical appreciation focused on acoustics to calm the spirit. This collection explores textures beyond conventional pop harmonies. The sound creates textures rather than strictly adhering to melodies.

Sample Beverage:

25A 300109 — Wild Blue Sky

Cork & Caged - Bottled On 2025.01.09 / Lot 25A / Best Before 2030.01.09

Saison Sundays are filled with conversation, music, and friends. I am a brewer working with yeast and wild fermentation. The tasting group has access to upcoming beer releases featuring rustic ales I've created or collected. The brewery hosted tasting events happen when beers are released.

The concept of critical listening is taken from Hi-Fi audio meetings with a group of audiophile enthusiasts. We meet monthly to share new music, enjoy analog sound, and chat all things vintage. Private gatherings are hosted by request.

Send a message to visit or request to join. - Barrett Tillman