Birdsong's Fake Plastic Trees Ready to Blossom in June

Birdsong's Radiohead-inspired American Wheat/IPA is back. For more, see below:

CHARLOTTE, NC — Sometimes Birdsong Brewing Company finds inspiration in song titles. Or ingredients. Or in bad carpool karaoke. The story of just how Fake Plastic Trees, the brewery’s American Wheat/IPA came to be is a little of all of the above. It’s set to debut on tap and in cans on June 1. Introduced as a one-off in 2014, Fake Plastic Trees was quickly promoted to a seasonal, and was canned for the first time in 2016. Cans flew off the shelves — almost 600 cases were sold in the first month of it’s release, and this year’s release is expected to be substantially higher. The beer has a light, mellow base with a heaping dose of Columbus, Sorachi Ace and Cascade hops, says Chris Goulet, principal owner of Birdsong. “The smoothness of the wheat body perfectly complements the dank and hoppy aroma.” Seasonality and local sourcing is always top of mind for Birdsong, and this year’s release of Fake Plastic Trees is no different, using wheat from Riverbend Malt House in Asheville. “Whenever it’s feasible, we always like to have a personal relationship with our ingredients suppliers,” Goulet says. “Just like we want to connect personally with our customers and accounts, the suppliers are part of the overall Birdsong village.” So what about that beer name? Never known to take themselves too seriously, Birdsong drew inspiration from the Radiohead song of the same name. “A dry hopped wheat is not really a style,” Goulet says. “It doesn't fit comfortably in any of the traditional beer categories, so we figured for a ‘fake’ style we needed a fitting name. Also, there was a very off-key rendition of the song, sung by me and head brewer Conor Robinson on a drive back from Longmont, Colorado one time.”