Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Wrexham Lager is not available here in SoCal but the Wrexham Lager Export will become available where Destihl Brewing distributes because the Illinois brewery will be contracting the Welsh beer. I am kind of amazed that it has not been on shelves already considering the popularity of the team and the show.
For the youngsters out there, Celis might not ring a bell. Hoegaarden might not either. But hopefully, the second gen of the Pierre Celis story might grow big. And an encouraging sign is that the B.O.M. Brewery (Belgian Original Maltbakery) the rare combo of brewing and malt companies, not only oversaw the design and construction but will brew their Belgian beers in Texas!
The plan is to brew the following B.O.M. brews:
Heaven – A thoroughly hopped and dry hopped ale, loosely categorized as a Blonde. B.O.M.’s first brew – this alluringly cloudy ale beckons with a fruity aroma and smooth, snappy flavor from traditional English hops and B.O.M. wheat malt, amongst others.
Hell – Ringing in at a devilishly exact 6.66% ABV. Hell ages well, with a flavor reminiscent of fresh-brewed coffee and just-baked bread. The name comes from the malts used, which van Hecke describes as “roasty, toasty and burned!”
Full Moon 12 – A self-described parody of another classic Belgian beer that may or may not have “12” in its title (the monks threatened legal action if the word “parody” was used on the label). Clocking in at a perfectly cellar-able 10.2% ABV, Full Moon 12 is brewed with a secret blend of freshly-roasted B.O.M. malts and aged on home-toasted, Belgian-grown oak sourced by van Hecke himself.
Bling Bling Imperial King – This lavish, malty golden ale clocks in at 8.88 % ABV, and true to the name, uses malts roasted with 24-carat gold.
To work around the big, big start up costs in equipment and material, new breweries have turned to Kickstarter or they have had their beer brewed for them but this is the first time that I have seen a brewery just begin with barrel aging space. Barring Almanac Farmhouse ales (also of the northern part of California) that has a similar working style.
Here is what the press release says about The Rare Barrel, “Northern California is rich in brewing tradition and is home to some of the best breweries in the world. Hoping to add to this proud history, we are pleased to announce that we will be launching an all-sour, all-barrel aged “gypsy” brewery in the San Francisco Bay Area named The Rare Barrel.
What do we mean by “gypsy” brewery? We plan to partner with the great breweries of the Bay Area for our brewing needs, and we will be building our own barrel warehouse for fermentation, packaging and serving our beers to the public.
Our team is made up of people committed to producing the highest quality sour beer. Co-founders Jay Goodwin, former Brewer and Head of Barrel Aging at The Bruery in Orange County, Alex Wallash, homebrewer and Sales Representative in biotechnology, and Brad Goodwin, entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry, make up our crew of passionate craft beer lovers.
We hope to release more details of our plan over the next few months. We look forward to producing beer with experimental methods, a singular focus on quality sours, and a commitment to the craft beer community.”