Bier Mash Amaro
Wunderkammer Bier Mash and Matchbook fortifying spirit made from Northeast Grain Shed grains
Foraged ingredients: rose hips, beach rose petals, crabapples, sumac, chokecherries, yarrow, pears, plums, and quassia
Other ingredients: Rare Tea Cellar Quassia, Sugar
25% Alc by Vol
750mL
Made in VT + NY
Suggested Serve
The Johnny Weekly
1.5 oz My Bitter Earth
.75 oz Sweet Triumph Peated
.5 oz lemon
.5 oz simple syrup
Build in a Collins glass over ice. Garnish with lemon wheel.
Autumnal Parachute
1.75 oz My Bitter Earth
.75 oz Late Embers Smoked Sunchoke
.75 oz lemon juice
.75 oz 50:50 honey syrup (equal parts honey + warm water)
Shake with ice, strain into a coupe.
Into The Bottle
Last spring we traveled to Vermont�s Northeast Kingdom to collaborate with brewer Vasilios Gletsos of Wunderkammer Bier. The goal: craft a beer mash that paired with the grain distillate we�d made the year before, creating a bier amaro.
Our collaboration began in 2021, and in October 2023 we released My Bitter Earth (�Amara Terra Mia�). Botanicals were foraged near the brewery and at The Lin Beach House, then macerated in distillate for a year before fortifying the bier mash with quassia and sugar. Both mash bills used similar grains sourced locally to each of us.
Despite its name, bitterness isn�t the first impression. The amaro is herbaceous and grain-forward, layered with malt, hops, and botanicals that build toward a candied middle and gentle, lingering bitterness.
The process spanned two years, 1,288 miles of travel, grain milling, foraging, pear tree shaking, and countless discussions on collaboration and amaro traditions. Federal regulators were puzzled by our approach, inspired by vermouth and pineau de charentes.
Our fortifying spirit features rose hips, beach rose petals, crabapples, sumac, chokecherries, yarrow, pears, plums, and quassia, distilled from NY-grown organic malt, oats, and red wheat at Matchbook.
At Wunderkammer, Vasili brews in a mash tun/coolship once used as a cheese vat, powered by a wood furnace and free of automation. Its simplicity allows unusual ingredients and methods � reflecting both his and our shared ethos of process over efficiency.
Vasili often notes his work embraces questions that take time to form and resolve, seeking elegant, enduring solutions. His beers speak this philosophy: mixed-culture, barrel-fermented, low-ABV, rich with foraged botanicals like yarrow, pine, and lichen. He sees raw materials as a way to recontextualize his environment and elevate it to art.
Arriving at his hillside brewery feels like discovery. Behind cellar doors once used for cheese aging now rest barrels, demijohns, and a mural of a winged death�s head � a symbol of rebirth for both space and craft. Vasili himself steers conversations toward art, family, and community, though his deep brewing knowledge is always present in the glass.
For us, My Bitter Earth is more than an amaro. It�s a snapshot of collaboration, seasons, and place � fleeting moments distilled into something lasting.