Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Chimay has been putting some of their classic Belgian ales into barrels and this year, the new Barrel-fermented Grand Reserve is aged in “barrels of Brandy sourced from one of the oldest wine regions in the world”. It is certainly on my extra long wish list.
I missed either by mistake or by cost last year’s special La Folie Gran Reserve release: Geisha. Now a new and even more intriguing barrel aging and nitrogen adding experience is on the way with PX. The PX stands for Pedro Ximénez, a white Spanish wine grape varietal that is used to produce the namesake Pedro Ximénez Sherry.
New Belgium and their barrel wranglers procured 20 of these rare sherry barrels and put La Folie inside. Then… “Once matured, 400 whole, hand-split Tahitian vanilla beans were infused into the sherry barrel-aged base beer for four months, swirled every day to intensify the combination of vanilla’s sweetness with existing fig, sour plum and cocoa flavors.”
I may splurge for this one.