Tag: Barrel-Aged beer

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Featured Reviews – The Bruery Tiki beers

The Bruery have a couple Tiki inspired beers out now and here are my thoughts on them….

Seahorse – right out of the gate, this beer is great.  Big, juicy pineapple aroma and flavor.  Super tropical.  Light malt taste slides in for a second. Quite tart but that fades a notch not less acidic territory as it warms. The only minus is that the bourbon barrel character is missing as is the citrus for me.  Those two added would have made for an even more complex sour. 

Mai Zombie – pours an amber red color.  Quite a multitude of ingredients here and boy is it almond dominated to me.  The orange flower water adds a twist but the spices, lime and grapefruit are not to be found.  Tastes a bit hot as well.  Maybe dialed back in ABV would soften that edge.  No sugary rum texture found either. More cocktail oriented.

The clear winner was Seahorse. Both beers could have delivered more of the flavors on the labels but the sour was more balanced and maybe the Zombie cocktail is not for me.

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Really Delirious

I have seen a trickle of Barrel-aged Belgian beers pop up on the interwebs. Not yet seen any in the markets. And the latest to pique my interest comes from Delirium, better known as the strong pink elephant beer. Here is to hoping that they will continue to utilize different barrels.

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Rhubarb Sketch

Rhubarb is not often thrown into the mix but if the Beachwood Blendery is doing it, then expect it to really shine. A choice selection of their aging beer was exposed to the rhubarb and then that was mixed with an apricot flavored beer for the final product. Releases today!

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Infinite Loops

Well, maybe closer to (4) variants of the annual Infinite Wishes release from Smog City. You can buy 2/Max bottles of the following: Regular, Coconut Vanilla, Cinnamon, Double Bourbon and licorice.

Smog City throws a good party and they have the crowd control and lines down too. So head out to Torrance on January 25th and look into the infinite.

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2018 Holiday Beer # 32 – Reindeer Tears from Heathen Brewing

Our final beer of the 2018 holiday season is a tearful goodbye to the BSP annual tradition of showcasing holiday beers from around the country and the world…


The brewery describes Reindeer Tear’s from Heathen Brewing as “one of Heathen’s “Heathenal” beers that was bottled from day one. At the time, the goal was to make a world-class barleywine and then kiss it with a touch of bourbon and oak. Each year we make subtle changes to keep this beer evolving towards perfection.”

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Running


For those who crave the new and what to see what barrel magic Founders Brewing Co. is up to, well a new one is running towards customers.

Barrel Runner will be the 4th installment in the 2018 Barrel-Aged Series. The beer is “a mosaic-hopped ale aged in rum”.

“Barrel Runner will be available in 4-packs of 12 oz bottles and 750mL bottles beginning in June through August. It will have an SRP of $14.99/4-pack and $11.99/750mL bottle.”

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No Ashes – Just a Barrel

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BBQ and craft beer both have passionate adherents and divergent styles and preparation methods. And for both, all it takes is to step a foot into a brewery or a BBQ restaurant and then another and you realize that wealth of differences.

All hokey preamble to a quick night spent at Barrel & Ashes in Studio City near the CBS lot. There is a great smokey smell inside the small place that has a nice big window onto busy all-the-time Ventura Boulevard.

I was there to sample the unique collaboration of Wolf Creek Brewing putting their Timber Wolf Red Ale into a Buffalo Trace whiskey barrel. Used but not in the normal way of being, this particular barrel had been dispensing whiskey at the restaurant. B&A is one of the rare six spots in Los Angeles that gets an actual barrel that held whiskey. (Along with an allotment of bottles too)They are allowed to taste and pick what whiskey they like from a selection to be their “house” drink. Sometimes they go oaky. Sometimes mineral.
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Due to the laws of beer and distribution, layered with spirits regulation. B&A couldn’t just ask a brewery to fill it and pay for the beer. Nope, had to find a brewery who A) self-distributed, B) that they liked and had a relationship with. Enter Wolf Creek, who has been hit or miss for me in the past but they have thought outside the box and added a red ale to the barrel.

The resulting beer pours a muddy red/brown color. Big whiskey aroma and taste to it. Vanilla and wood are the dominant notes. 7.3% is the final ABV and there is a light mouthfeel to it while some sweetness sneaks in at the tail end.
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The beer menu has a good mix of craft beers to choose from and beers to please your cranky non-craft, just here for BBQ friends. It is one of the rare spots that has regular taps. Not all are rotating. And if you need an excuse to visit then on September 10th, B&A will be hosting a Sixpoint. Night. Meet members of the NY based brewery team and try their beers.

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Anvil & Stave

photo from AleSmith.
photo from AleSmith.

This month, AleSmith Brewing is opening Anvil & Stave: A Barrel-Aged Beer Experience inside their already open tap room. Once inside you will be able to blend your own barrel-aged beers.
Final details are not set in concrete but you be offered a menu from the vast stockpile of bourbon and other barrels and allowed to “design” a blend much like ordering a taster tray. Give me 25% of this + 30% of this + 15% of this, up to 100%.

The finished product would be handed to you from behind the bar and you would sit and enjoy. There remains the possibility that you would be able to do the actual pouring work at some point but that, of course, might require a different set of rules and procedures.

Either way, this is a great way to appreciate what the master blenders are doing. There will be trial and error which would be a good name for a blender, now that I think about it.

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That’s a lot of Wishes

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If your wishes weren’t answered during Year1 of Smog City’s release of Infinite Wishes their bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout, well you get another chance tomorrow with the online pre-sale. The brewery calls it “bourbon chocolate pie” and boy does that sound delicious.