Speakeasy Ales & Lagers

Speakeasy Ales & Lagers (San Francisco, CA) is releasing a new, blended, barrel aged series called The Syndicate.

Each release will feature a blend of strong ales that have spend 9 months or longer aging in various American spirit barrels. For Syndicate No. 1, Brewmaster Kushal Hall made the blend in basically the the same way winemakers blend.

“This is certainly the most unique beer we’ve ever produced,” said Kushal Hall of the project. “There were so many factors to consider in the creation of this beer—the collective recipe writing, the brewing & fermentation of each of the component beers, the aging of each beer in the different types of bourbon barrels, and how the individual beers interacted with each barrel. We had to see how the the wood reacted with the beer and how the malts broke down and created new flavors.”

Syndicate No. 01 is a blend of six beers matured between 12-26 months in various bourbon barrels. The base beer was Old Godfather Barleywine (51%) which was aged for over two years. The rest of the blend breaks down like this –

The whole recipe looks like this:

• Old Godfather (51%) Barleywine aged 26 months
• Black Hand Volume 1 (15%) Imperial Stout aged 13 months
• Two Minutes to Midnight (14%) Imperial Stout aged 12 months
• Betrayal (11%)
• Imperial Red aged 12 months
• Double Daddy (5%) Imperial IPA aged 12 months
• Payback (3%)
• Robust Porter aged 18 months

Syndicate No. 1 will be available at the tap room on December 5th, 2013 at 3 pm, celebrating the repeal of prohibition. A handful of bottles will hit west coast retailers.

Style: American Strong Ale (Blended. Barrel Aged. Bourbon)
Availability: 22oz Bombers
Arrival: 12/5/13

10.5% ABV