Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Three letters is all it took for me to want to drive to the Firestone Walker Propagator to pick up beer. G I N. I love beers that use gin barrels but they are hard to come by and temperamental as tequila barrels can be. But this latest cocktail beer sounds perfect for summer.
Gunwhale has a Baitball in their line- up, and now they have a Wolfbait and it is a big beer in a 16oz can. And they start with a dark farmhouse ale before aging in barrels for 2 years. You may think that $9 is too much for one can but you (and I) have probably paid $6 or more for an IPA. And come on oak aging is awesome.
Continuing the reviews of beers bought from the Glendale Tap cellar, we go old with the 2019 barrel-aged Barleywine release of Old Jetty from El Segundo Brewing.
This ale was aged in bourbon barrels and strides in at 13.2% ABV. Old Jetty is both prickly and smooth at the same time. There is loads of bourbon character but at the same time the sweetness is restrained. A bit of syrup note here. Great brunch beer.
For those who have not had Utopia from Sam Adams, well this is new collaboration with business partner, Dogfish Head might be a close approximation for you to try. Not that World Wide Stout is something to sneeze at.
When one thinks of Christmas and Sierra Nevada beer, you think Celebration their fresh hop winter seasonal. But dig a little deeper and you find a plum festooned 10%ABV beer as well.
I certainly didn’t see this extension of the “squeeze” coming from Deschutes. But seeing as I have liked other beer versions of the classic cocktail, I think I will take a swing at this one to see how the fresh and the bourbon meld.
Cellador Ales is going fancy on Friday November 15th when they release two Jackson Ranch wild ale variants. They are whiskey inspired beers as described by the brewery as, “one aged in a High West Double Rye Single Barrel and the other in a Knob Creek Cask strength Single Barrel.”
Cellador will be making cocktails with the beers that night and if you have had one of them before, you know it will be tasty and interesting.
I do not like much highly corporate mass produced beers but if I was forced to make a choice, I would draft Modelo. Not their full range of Pacifico’s and Corona’s but the Modelo only. I do not know much about the Grupo but I have had much better experiences with their beer than other of the big players.
Which makes their foray into a tequila barrel-aged pilsner a bit interesting…
They are going to take their plain vanilla pilsner and give it a tequila spin. Hopefully the process is more of a subtle hint than a -Rita style blast.
Moonlight Meadery has a cider that should pair well with the barrel-aged syrup, Little Apples is a Semi-Dry Hard Cider that is Aged in Rye Whiskey Barrels. made from natural and locally sourced Granny Smith apples.
Barrel-Aging isn’t just for beverages. It can also be for your breakfast, Burton’s sells some pricey maple syrup aged in a variety of spirit barrels and according to this post on The Takeout (visit that site, it is super cool), they even have collaborated with “distilleries and using different kinds of spirits, even beer (New Belgium Brewery’s La Folie Sour Brown Ale).”
I didn’t see that syrup on their webstore but they had a bacon and bourbon version that sounds great and makes me crave waffles for sure.