A new season is coming and so are some new releases! With the expansion into our new brewery last year, this enabled us to age more beers in barrels as well as more styles. And soon we will all be able to enjoy the benefits!
On October 15th we’ll be releasing this years vintage of our Bourbon Barrel Auld Heritage at the taproom at noon. Previously only poured on draft, we aged a little more this year and will have a limited number of 22oz bottles available. The base beer – our Auld Heritage – is an award winning Old Ale, similar to a barleywine but just not as strong in alcohol – but this beer still clocks in at 10.8% ABV. With notes of caramel, oak and a little prune in the nose, rich and smooth caramel and vanilla in the mouthfeel, it has a smooth warming body with a little tannin in the finish. It’s high ABV is deceptively hidden. This may be one of the best barrel aged beers we’ve produced yet! We anticipate a limit of 2 per person, and a 22oz bottle will be $16 plus sales tax.
This years vintage of the highly anticipated Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout (BBIS) will be released around mid November! We’re waiting for the beer to tell us it’s ready, as soon as it is we’ll confirm the date. BBIS is quickly turning into one of our most decorated beers – it’s currently Grand National Champion at the US Beer Tasting Awards, a Gold Medal winner at the World Beer Championships, and won Silver at this years San Diego International Beer Festival. We pulled this years batch out of the barrels back in June and are letting it age out in our cooler, to soften and round out some of the 12% alcohol notes. We think by mid November it will be in the perfect place! A nose of cherry, vanilla, tobacco and rich chocolate, with a little leather as the beer warms. A rich, smooth, and warming mouthfeel brings in notes of raisin, plum and prune, with some oak in the finish to wrap up the sip. We’re excited that we managed to increase production of BBIS this year, but we still anticipate it not lasting long in the taproom. We’re hoping to expand production more in 2017 too.
And then in early December, we’re planning to release a beer brewed in collaboration with Kuma Coffee – our Barrel Aged Breakfast Stout. An imperial milk stout aged in bourbon barrels, we then add coffee at packaging. Another beer previously only released in small amounts on draft, we’re pleased to have added more barrels this year. We will collaborate with Kuma on the coffee that we use in the beer, and they will also have the collaboration coffee available at local stores. In addition to the Barrel Aged version, we will also have an un-barrel aged Breakfast Stout available. Rich and decadent, we take an imperial milk stout with healthy amounts of oats and add coffee. Notes of dark fruit and milk chocolate come through, with a smooth decadent body, which in the bourbon barrel version are joined by light oak, vanilla and warming bourbon. We anticipate the Breakfast Stout, Barrel Aged Breakfast Stout, and our collaboration coffee to be available in limited distribution throughout Western Washington in December. The beer is currently still aging in the barrels but we anticipate making our blend of the barrels in time for a December release. When we get more specifics on the date we’ll announce it further.
Cheers!