Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Firestone Walker has two distillery collaborations on the horizon, taking their Central Coast Quad in two directions with the help of rue whiskey barrels from WhistlePig.
First is a double barrel hit of rye and syrup…
…and the one that strikes my fancy more since I am a plain, unadorned type of guy…
Might be fun to get some of the Rye to pair with these.
I always try to leave space for a beer that I received at Christmas, this year that beer is …a combo of partners Dogfish Head and Sam Adams.
This is a big one. First hit is maple and lots of it. Not sugary though, more dry. It is an odd duck. I get some notes of Utopias peering through but that maple is the keynote. The cheeks warm after just a couple sips but the alcohol is not a large presence. I do get some tobacco / coffee ground combo. Chicory maybe. Due to the cost per bottle and the ABV, this is a special occasion beer.
Who here hasn’t been on this list at some point this year? But maybe it isn’t such a bad place to be if there is a Victory barrel-aged beer available for you. I think 11% abv will leas to more naughty, not less.
“Rum Barrel Aged Winter Warmer small batch ale gives off alllll the vibes; a luscious medium bodied copper ale, with warming notes of vanilla, rum, brown sugar and cinnamon that will seduce your taste buds. “
Figueroa Mountain is turning to an unusual style for their 11th Anniversary Ale…
“Our 11th Anniversary is a luscious Baltic-Style Porter lagered in both Four Roses Bourbon, and Pinhook Rye whiskey barrels. Rich and complex, our 11th Anniversary has notes of Chocolate, Coffee, Toasted Almond, Spiced Honey and Dates. We added Toasted Coconut and Bourbon Barrel-aged Vanilla for even more delicious complexity.”
That is a beer dressed to the nines, or elevens.
Imagine Anchor Steam Beer or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, an iconic beer. Then barrel it.
That is what Bell’s Brewery has done with Uberon, their twist on Oberon. “Uberon is a bourbon barrel-aged version of our iconic American Wheat Ale. It’s strong, spicy, warming… Uberon tastes like our classic American Wheat Ale with a shot of bourbon dropped into it.”
Hermosa Brewing has a lovely seaside adjacent taproom but they share space with R6 Distillery up in El Segundo and Hermosa is taking advantage of the nearby barrels. They are putting beer into “fresh oak barrels from their awesome line of craft whiskeys. Last year we took the first steps in our collaboration and planted the seed for our barrel aged beers.”
The first two stouts on Friday July 23rd at our El Segundo brewery.
Angel City has a new sour with a bit of a barrel twist, Fawns in the Farmhouse
Here are the interesting beer details: “We took a farmhouse saison and aged it in 2nd use Cognac barrels for 7 months to develop some sour and funky flavors with sour and wild yeast cultures. Then we crushed fresh Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Twin Fawns Vineyard in San Miguel, CA and fermented the must and skins with Brett Lambicus and natural yeast on the grapes. Finally, we added the fermenting grapes to the farmhouse sour in barrels and let it age for another 5months.”
One of the more approachable barrel-aged beers that I have had in the past is the New Belgium Oakspire. That beer started back in 2018 and last year was reimagined as a cocktail beer, Oakspire Old Fashioned.
Now it is returning with a new barrel….
Spires are steeped in Four Roses bourbon to create an under 10% barrel-aged beer,
Freigest Bierkultur comes up with some excellent spins in German beer standards and they have collaborated on a couple new ones that caught my fancy…
…and…
This would be a cool tasting duo. Also, I like the DDH play on words too. Bet some hop head will buy it and get a snortful of elderflower.
Next up from The Bruery is the fabled White Chocolate…
This wheat wine pours a lovely orange color with nice white foam. I find it is better drunk a little warmer. Both velvet smooth and spiky with carbonation. Lovely spirit aroma to this. Mellow but easily evident. It is a nice interplay between bourbon and light chocolate notes. Sometimes simplicity is the best avenue. ABV is masked extremely efficiently. Zero burn.