Topic Archives: Cherries
Double barrel-aged Monday Night Excolatur hits shelves
Monday Night Excolatur debuts on February 10th.
The base beer for Monday Night Excolatur, a dark sour, has been aging in a blend of bourbon and rum barrels for more than two years. For the last four months, Excolatur has been aging on Montmorency cherries.
“Excolatur is Latin for ‘Development.’ This beer started out in fresh bourbon barrels before a transfer to rum barrels. We then inoculated it with locally sourced Pediococcus and Lactobacillus strains and aged it for another year before refermenting it on Mont cherries.
Monday Night Excolatur is now available in 500-milliliter bottles at the brewery’s “Garage” location as of February 10th, with limited distribution across the brewery’s footprint.
Style: American Wild Ale (w/ Cherries. Barrel Aged. Bourbon. Rum.)
Availability: 500ml Bottles.
Debut: 2/10/18
9.5% ABV
Berry heavy Boulevard Jam Band makes a year-round can debut
Boulevard Jam Band that was a draft exclusive in the past, is coming to cans.
This Smokestack Series release is a fruity one. The base beer is created with two-row barley, acidulated malt, and Topaz hops. The “humongous” fruit character (jammy?) comes from blueberry, red raspberry, and tart cherry juice blended at the end of fermentation.
Starting in February, look for Boulevard Jam Band to debut in 12-ounce cans, year-round. The alcohol by volume is a touch lower than its predecessor, now at 5.9% instead of 7%.
Jam Band pours a deep ruby and opens with aromas of dark berries, melon and subtle citrus. Minimal, supporting malt sweetness provides a platform from which blueberry, red raspberry and tart cherry sing resulting in a slightly tart, easy-drinking summer beer that begs for an encore.
Boulevard Jam Band will be available nationally starting in February 2018.
Style: Fruit Beer (w/ Cherry Juice. Raspberry Juice. Blueberry Juice.)
Availability: 12oz Cans, Draft.
Initial Debut: 7/10/17
Can Debut: February 2018
5.9% ABV, 6 IBUs
Far from evil & damn tasty: Schlafly The Devil’s Farmhouse
Schlafly The Devil’s Farmhouse joins the Rare Ibex Series on December 22nd.
Schlafly Brewery is one of the biggest names in Saint Louis, Missouri brewing. The 26-year-old brewery is known for a great many beers, but none so hard to come by as the Ibex Rare Series. Don’t feel bad if you aren’t too familiar with Schlafly Ibex. They are truly limited to just a few thousand bottles, whenever a beer decides that it’s ready.
For the second time this year, the Ibex Rare Series has born another unique fruit – The Devil’s Farmhouse. The name doesn’t conjure up thoughts of Christmas, but the design and rarity are indeed perfect for the season. Something truly special, worth sipping with loved ones.
A plethora of malts, including rye, wheat, and dark malt is what the Brettanomyces has been feasting on for over a year. This is no ordinary farmhouse ale. It’s every bit as dark, brooding and complex as the devil himself, hardened by 18 months of aging in wine barrels with sweet red cherries and black currants. Every sip is a wave of farmhouse Bretty funk, tart, and fruity flavors, with the slightest hint of oak. You are sipping little nuances of oaky time, captured in a sexy 750-milliliter bottle.
No this isn’t a beer for mass consumption. Nor is it something easily replicated. It’s beer and brewer passion, elevated. In this case, the devil is truly in the details.
Schlafly The Devil’s Farmhouse will be available starting December 21st in the brewery’s tap room, plus limited distribution, $30 dollars each.
Style: American Wild Ale (w/ Black Currants. Cherries. Wine Barrel Aged.)
Availability: 750ml Bottles. Limited release.
Debut: 12/22/17
7.5% ABV
Foudre aged SweetWater Cherry Pit & The Pendulum debuts in Woodlands Series
Atlanta’s SweetWater Brewing Company’s first full production foray in to American wild ales happened a few years before their new Woodlands Facility. In 2015 to be precise, with the release of a Brettanomyces yeast heavy Pit & The Pendulum. That beer, brewed with fresh peach puree from South Carolina was so well received that it was made intermittently year-round. This year, a new Pit is coming – SweetWater Cherry Pit & The Pendulum.
RELATED: Sweetwater The Woodlands (PICS)
Arising from the brewery’snew foudres is SweetWater Cherry Pit & The Pendulum, that has been sitting for over six months on a blend of Montmorency & Balaton cherries. Chris Meadows and Nick Burgoyne, brewers overseeing the Woodlands, started fermentation on Rainy Day Acid Trip (the unofficial name for the base) in stainless steel in July, 016. It was transferred to oak foudres in December, where a blend of Montmorency & Balaton cherries were added to the oak.
The result is a delicate, tart wild ale that almost glows a pinkish-red. While The Woodlands program may be young, after tasting Through the Brambles, Cambium (foudre beer) and Cherry Pit – the word maturity comes to mind. SweetWater, being the biggest craft brewery in the state, doesn’t get the beer geek cred they deserve sometimes. For the past 5+ years, the brewery has put in some serious time internally developing a wild ale program.
Ultimately when comfortable, the brewery pulled the trigger on the wooden palace that is The Woodlands. The brewing team didn’t use their fans as guinea pigs in development. They left much of the triumphs and failures behind closed doors leaving to the public some of the best sour and wild ales the southeast has to offer. This truly is a new era for SweetWater.
A golden ale soured with lactobacillus and fermented with three brettanomyces strains, then aged for 6 months in American and French oak with 3,000 pounds of Montmorency & Balaton cherries. Freshly harvested house brettanomyces was added for bottle conditioning, ensuring evolution in the cellar.
SweetWater Cherry Pit & The Pendulum is a 16.9-ounce corked & caged bottle release.
Style: American Wild Ale (w/ Cherries. Oak Aged.)
Availability: 16.9oz Bottles
Debut: 9/9/17
6.1% ABV
PIC: Beer Street Journal
Another Hawaiian Punch inspired beer: The Veil Brewing Never Never Aloha Aloha
It may be past Labor Day, but Richmond, Virginia is still getting a little tropical. The Veil Brewing Never Never Aloha Aloha debuts today.
If you aren’t familiar with The Veil’s beer naming nomenclature, when you see the double name, it’s going to be the “double” version of another similar beer. In this case, Never Aloha released in back in March.
The Veil Brewing Never Never Aloha Aloha is a double version of their Hawaiian Punch inspired gose, brewed with literally hundreds of gallons of pineapple, mango, passion fruit, blood orange, Guava, and cherry purée, plus Hawaiian red alaea sea salt.
Super tart and loaded with tropical notes on the aromatics and flavor profile.
The Veil Brewing Never Never Aloha Aloha will be available when the brewery opens on September 5th.
Style: Gose (w/ Passionfruit, Pineapple, Mango, Blood Orange, Guava. Cherries.)
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft.
Debut: 9/5/17
5.1% ABV
Image: The Veil Brewing
With a cherry on top: The Bruery White Chocolate with Cherries is on the horizon
One of California’s most decadent dessert beers is getting a cherry on top. The Bruery White Chocolate with Cherries is on the horizon.
A bourbon barrel-aged wheatwine serves as a boozy canvas for the waves of chocolate and vanilla introduced into this beer. The end result is wash of chocolate, vanilla oak, and vanilla beans, finishing in with a warming alcoholic heat.
Taking things a step further, the brewery has added a blend of tart and sweet cherries.
If you closed your eyes in our barrel house, you might think our brewers become chocolatiers. They dipped cherries into this limited edition of our bourbon barrel-aged wheatwine-style ale. With white chocolate flavors thanks to fresh vanilla beans, cacao nibs and extensive oak-aging, this treat for the senses has been enhanced with the addition of tart, sweet, juicy cherries.
The Bruery White Chocolate with Cherries will be a 750 milliliter bottle release. Release details are currently not available.
Style: Barleywine (w/ Cherries. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Availability: 750ml Bottles
Debut: TBA
14.2% ABV
Jester King Cherry Funk Metal, a fruited sour stout
Jester King Cherry Funk Metal debuts July 7th.
Earlier this year when the Austin, Texas based brewery was blending Funk Metal (a sour barrel-aged stout), they split off a portion of the blend. That blend was re-fermented with Balaton cherries.
Jester King Cherry Funk Metal will be available in 750 milliliter bottles, available starting a 4 pm on release day. $22 dollars each.
Style: Sour/Wild Ale (w/ Cherries)
Availability: 750ml Bottles (1,300 available)
Debut: 7/7/17
9.5% ABV
Image: Jester King
