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Terrapin Double Red is barrel-aged collaboration heaven
It almost sounds like fiction now, but there was a time in beer when the mere mention of barrel aging would elicit a Pavlovian response. You released it, they would come. Somewhere we lost that.
I’m not sure if it was just a flooded market or style-hype shift. The days of barrel-aged perfection faded for diabetic pastry stouts and chunky lactose haze bombs. In all honesty, I thought those days were gone until I stumbled upon this one.
Terrapin Beer Company has always just done whatever they want to do, stayed true to the mountain biking, travel, solar-powered, live music hippie culture, and just be. Two decades of growth trajectory show it.
Let’s talk about this beer. It’s no secret that Terrapin entered the Miller Coors portfolio years ago, and besides extra capital, it brought new opportunities for collaboration- in this case specifically – Coors Whiskey Company.
David Coors’ interest in whiskey started in college (naturally). He recalls sitting in his father’s (Pete Coors) Suburban on the way to the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado, and David declared “We should make whiskey!” Without even looking at David, Pete said “We are good at one thing and one thing only, and that’s making beer,” David recalls.
That conversation nagged David for nearly 20 years. In 2019, Coors Brewing Company made the business decision to venture beyond the beer aisle. The time was right to make bourbon, but the question was the approach. He didn’t want to just source juice and slap a label on it. By the time the pandemic hit, Coors had started blending and fell in love with a single malt blended with a bourbon flavor profile that not a lot of people had been releasing.
“We are good at one thing and one thing only, and that’s making beer”
“I was enamored by the flavor profile that came out of it. I was bringing all these different blends to family dinner on Sundays and finally found a blend we settled on and took it to market in 2021,” David says.
Coors Whiskey had recently been doing a barrel-aged imperial porter for AC Golden, piquing a bigger interest in making other barrel-aged beers. They reached out to their various brewery partners. Terrapin immediately jumped in. Brewmaster and co-founder Spike Buckowski and President Dustin Watts loved the whiskey blends. They started by dismissing the idea of putting an imperial stout in the barrel, thinking that’s already been done too much. Rye malt is far and away Spike’s favorite to brew with and dotes heavily on retired Terrapin Big Hoppy Monster (Imperial Rye Ale). Spike used that grain bill to guide the creation of Double Barrel Red Ale.
“The one eye-opening thing was the effect freshly dumped whiskey barrels have on the final flavor. It was so bold on flavor, and big on booze, pushing the final alcohol by volume to 12.7%. I really wanted the red ale to come out of the barrel mimicking the flavors of the 5 Trails blend,” Spike says.
“Having the beer locked and loaded by the time these barrels hit the ground was a challenge for us,” Dustin says. David Coors’ team emptied the barrels and shipped them to Georgia in less than 48 hours. We wanted to be ready to fill,” he adds.
The collaborative result is a liquid flashback to the heyday of barrel-aged beer beauties that we’ve stayed up far too late drinking. Besides conjuring warm fuzzy Big Hoppy Monster flashbacks, Double Barrel marries the best parts of blended whiskey and smooth barrel-aged beer. Terrapin has done a lot of barrel-aged beers in the past but this one stands apart from the others. This wasn’t just “brew a beer and find a barrel,” it was an intentional creation and it shows. It’s a barrel-aged art form we’ve missed.
After the beer was emptied from the barrels, they were shipped back to Coors Whiskey Company who is aging a blend in the barrels, for an ale-finished whiskey coming in late 2024.
Terrapin Double Barrel Red Ale is available in limited 16-ounce cans and draft.
Style: Imperial Red Ale (Barrel Aged. Whiskey)
Hops: Centennial, CTZ, Warrior
Malts: 2-row malt, CaraMalt, Light Crystal, Malted Rye, Amber Malt, Extra light Crystal, Malted Wheat, Flaked Corn
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft. Limited Release.
12.7% ABV
Great Divide Brewery & Roadhouse 2nd location opens Lone Tree, Colorado in February
Great Divide Brewery and Vibe Concepts will open their second Great Divide Brewing & Roadhouse in February 2024.
Great Divide Brewing & Roadhouse is slated to open in Lone Tree, Colorado in February, marking the brewery’s second “Roadhouse” concept. The first location opened just 13 miles away in Castle Rock, Colorado in May 2020.
Vibe Concepts
Vibe Concepts was founded in 1991 by John, Dan, and Mike Shipp. It is the parent company of Street Roadhouse, Roadhouse Boulder Depot, Spanky’s Road Roadhouse, and Reivers Bar and Grill, founded in 1991. Vibe also has various partnerships with Avery Brewing, Odell Brewing, Dry Dock Brewing, and Ska Brewing.
Great Divide Roadhouse – Take 2
The Lone Tree location is located on the ground floor of the Charles Schwab conference center, in an 8,200 square foot space. The design features a “massive” mahogany bar with a copper ceiling, private dining space for 75, and a four season heated patio.
Executive Chef James Doxon will lead the culinary side of the Roadhouse featuring upscale brewpub fare like burgers, pizzas, steaks and desserts.
Great Divide will not have any on-site brewing, but will have 14 tap handles, including two experimental beers brewed on the 5-Barrel system at the Castle Rock location. Additionally, the location will have more than 25 wines by the bottle, and a well-rounded cocktail menu.
Great Divide Brewery & Roadhouse Castle Rock is located at 9878 Schwab Way #240, Lone Tree Colorado 80124. Open Monday – Friday, 11 a.m. – midnight and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. – midnight.
Monday Night Atlanta 404 Lager hits the Peach State soon
Monday Night Atlanta 404 Lager, a new lower alcohol by volume lager will debut soon from the Atlanta-based brewery.
Monday Night Brewing is prepping a new lager- namely Atlanta 404 Lager, for release in the near future. For context – “404” is Atlanta’s area code. (Think NYC’ s famous 212 area code.)
The lager mot only carries the “404” area code, but is purportedly is also brewed with primarily Georgia grown ingredients.
PIC ARCHIVE: MONDAY NIGHT BREWING
It is the intention of Monday Night to make Atlanta 404 Lager more than a beer. It is important to note that finally plans/details haven’t been finalized- the brewery wants to see a portion of the sales of the 404 set aside to create a “404 Fund” intended to be a financial vessel to give back to the city.
Monday Night Atlanta 404 Lager will be available year round in cans and draft. A release date has not been set.
Style: Lager
Availability: 12oz Cans, Draft. Year-Round
Debut: TBA
4.04% ABV
Ecliptic Brewing sells
Ecliptic Brewing in Portland, Oregon has announced the brewery has been sold.
Ecliptic Brewing announced this week that the brewery has officially been sold, per the brewery’s owner and brewmaster John Harris.
In an Instagram announcement, the Harris stated the last two years of brewery operations have been challenging – citing the pandemic, rising cost of goods, and overall economic climate. “It has gotten to the point where we are no longer able to continue operations, and the company has been sold,” the statement reads.
“A Bigger Entity.”
Harris mentioned in the statement that the sale will allow the brewery to pay back debts with a “bigger entity” – which has now been disclosed as Great Frontier Holdings that includes Ninkasi Brewing and Wings & Arrow Beer Company.
The restaurant will be open through Saturday, November 18th.
The Ecliptic Brewing beers and production will presumably continue on through Great Frontier Holdings channels.
Ecliptic Brewing opened their “Mothership” restaurant and brewery in October of 2013. In November 2021, Ecliptic took over Base Camp Brewing’s space in southeast Portland- renaming the location “The Moon Room.”
Anheuser-Busch sells Virtue Cider back to owner
Quietly, Fennville, Michigan’s Virtue Cider has returned back into the hands of the founder Greg Hall.
Virtue Cider is no longer part of Anheuser-Busch. This deal took place back in August, around the same time Anheuser Busch was selling off eight brands to Tilray, and has been flying almost completely under the radar until a mention of the sale surfaced this week in Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.
After reaching out to Virtue Cider, a spokesperson with the A-B Craft Division confirms that Greg Hall reaquired the cidery back in August. Per the email:
Today we announced an agreement to purchase Virtue Cider from our partners at Anheuser-Busch. It’s been a great five years with Anheuser-Busch, and I want to thank my colleagues and fellow craft brewery founders for believing in Virtue Cider and helping us create some of the best cider in the world.
Moving forward, we’ll continue to focus on what we’ve always done: making world-class ciders that are fit for the table, being great stewards of the environment, and helping more people discover Fennville and all that Southwest Michigan has to offer.
Greg Hall, Founder, Virtue Cider
In 2015 it was reported that Virtue Cider had fallen behind financially. Ultimately Hall decided to sell off the controlling stake in Virtue to Anheuser Busch. In 2017, A-B bought the remaining stake in September 2017.
Fast forward to 2023, AB InBev has lost billions over the summer after a failed marketing campaign, and as mentioned earlier, sold off numerous brands including Shock Top, in their portfolio off to cannabis company, Tilray.
The deal is still pending approval through the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. The financials of the deal and closing date were not disclosed.
Beer Street Journal visited Virtue Cider earlier this summer. It’s a bit off the beaten path, but quite peaceful (and delicious).
Birds Fly South Ale Project to close October 10th
Greenville, South Carolina’s Birds Fly South has announced they will close on October 10th, 2023.
Shawn and Lindsay Johnson started Birds Fly South Ale Project 7 years ago in the Hampton Station area of Greenville, South Carolina. The couple met and married while Shawn was in the Coast Guard in Clearwater, Florida. Shortly after getting married, the opportunity came for the Johnsons to move to either Hawaii or Alaska and they chose Alaska. As you can imagine, the weather in America’s 49th state isn’t as conducive to outdoor activities as Florida, so they took up brewing beer. Indoors.
A few years later, the family transferred back to Florida, and that’s where Shawn & Lindsay’s brewing career really took off. From the first time Beer Street Journal met Shawn, he always spoke so highly of his brewing mentor, Bob Sylvester, founder of St. Somewhere Brewing in Tampa, Florida.
Before Greenville, there was a stop in Washington D.C., putting in time assisting in the opening of Fair Winds Brewing Company, then getting transferred to South Carolina.
Last night, Shawn and Lindsay announced on Instagram the brewery would close after their final jazz event on October 10th.
We wish that this was a fairy tale ending, but recognize all good things must come to an end. Timing is everything, and we embarked on an expansion to increase our taproom sales that have taken a hit over the last year. We don’t regret that decision, only the way we went about it.
The silver lining is that we are able to step away from the stress of running a business to have more time to focus on our family. This is our opportunity to embark on a new adventure and enjoy a new pace of life.Birds Fly South via Instagram
On a personal note, Shawn and Lindsay, as well as the entire brewery crew and fans they call “The Flock” are some of the kindest, outgoing, family-focused breweries I’ve ever been to. Their wild ale Skin & Bone is still one of the best of its kind In the southeast. It’s heartbreaking to hear this brewery won’t be there on the next trip to Greenville.
Below are some pics from Beer Street Journal’s first visit to Birds Fly South, featuring Shawn, Lindsay, and family back in August of 2016.
ATL Brew Fest 2023 – beer with 106 heat index
It was 97 degrees in the shade in Atlanta on this particular Saturday, but the festival must go on. Live! at The Battery Atlanta and Terrapin Taproom held their annual beer festival right right at the gates to the Atlanta Braves stadium.
One thing is certain, it doesn’t matter if the heat index is 106 degrees, it’s still summer and there is drinking to do. The VIP section was inside, complete with food and free tie-dyed t-shirts, so those VIP ticket holders really won the day on that purchase.
Besides the heat, a few standouts on the day was Stillfire Brewing’s Blood Orange Diva, a wheat beer and Atlanta Hawks DJ, Chika Takai that threw down dance party all the way to the end – where incidentally it started to rain at the final seconds of her set.
Plus it’s not many beer festivals where you can leave the festival and walk into a bar 100 feet away. That’s The Battery Atlanta for you.
Maybe next year’s fest will be a little cooler.
