Topic Archives: Oak Aged
Mixed Culture Saison: Burial The Veil Behind the Curtain welcomes Spring
Burial The Veil Behind the Curtain debuts today marking the first day of spring.
The decay of Winter’s final demise has fallen, says Asheville’s Burial Beer. Today marks the first day of spring, and with it comes this fermented tribute. The brewery’s Keeper’s Veil Honey Saison has been aged in wood and refermented with a flower blend of chamomile, hibiscus, passionflower, elderflower, and lavender.
The beer is vibrantly botanical with notes of cranberry, lemon zest and rhubarb, and a quaffable acidity.
Each bottle is hand-dipped in beeswax and rolled in a blend of flowers. Limited to the brewery starting March 20th at a special brewery event. No distribution.
Style: Saison (w/ Honey. Chamomile, Hibiscus, Passionflower, Elderflower, Lavender. Oak Aged)
Availability: 750ml Bottles. Brewery only.
Debut: 3/20/18
?? ABV
Creature Comforts Reclaimed Rye finally debuts in cans
Creature Comforts Reclaimed Rye will (finally) debut in cans year-round on February 17th.
Reclaimed Rye has been a year-round offering by Athens, Georgia brewery basically since they opened their doors. The amber ale is brewed with rye malt and nuanced with a touch of French oak. The brewery teased the artwork two years ago this month, and finally after expansions, building a second production facility, Reclaimed Rye will finally be available in cans.
A uniquely complex and flavorful amber ale. French oak and rye malt lend to a well-rounded body with delicate undertones of toasted bread, spice, and subtle vanilla. We set out to show a new light onto the amber style with this beer and to reclaim it back from the ordinary. Easy to drink with friends at the pub, or just as good as a companion contemplating the stars, Reclaimed Rye is a collection of familiar voices singing a new harmony.
Creature Comforts Reclaimed Rye joins Athena and Tropicalia, and Bibo Pilsner in their year-round canned lineup. The designs are the brainchild of creative genius Kim Kirby of Young Athenians.
Style: Rye Beer (Oak Aged.)
Availability: 12oz Cans, Draft. Year-Round
Debut (Cans): 2/17/18
5.5% ABV
PIC: Beer Street Journal
A brooding, dark sour? Burial The River to Hell Runs Red
If this is Burial Beer Co.’s idea of what the rivers in hell taste like, count us in.
The Asheville, North Carolina based brewery’s Solera program has yielded another release, and it indeed runs deep red. Burial The River to Hell Runs Red is Oud Bruin ale (Flanders Brown Ale) that spent 6 months in Brunello foeders, only to be re-fermented in Sanctuary Vineyards Tempranillo barrels for 9 months. Hold on, not done. 75% of this sour ale was aged on raspberries, while the remaining 25% on blueberries.
The release is truly a dark, brooding, sour ale. As it warms the depth of this beer is revealed – a wash of bold Spanish black grapes and a subtle hint of dry Italian wine barrel, finishing with just the tiniest hint of vinegar and raspberry. Fans of sours like The Bruery Tart of Darkness or Jolly Pumpkin Noel De Calabaza will find a new love in hell here.
Burial The River to Hell Runs Red is a brewery only release, in 16.9-ounce bottles.
Style: American Wild/Sour Ale (w/ Blueberries. Raspberries. Foudre Aged. Wine Barrel Aged.)
Availability: 16.9oz Bottles
Debut: 1/13/18
7.5% ABV
PIC: Beer Street Journal
A stormy Atlanta day, 2 years, and now SweetWater Cambium
It was a sweaty, stormy day in Atlanta years ago, even before the build of SweetWater’s wild ale expansion “The Woodlands” was complete, that SweetWater Cambium was born. Brewers Nick Burgoyne and Chris Meadows were transferring wort from the brewery’s number one selling 420 Extra Pale Ale into a stainless steel tank. On any other day, this beer would have been donning the “420” hoppy badge of honor and headed out the door in a matter of weeks. This liquid, however, had a much grander destiny that would take years to complete.
SEE: SweetWater The Woodlands in pictures
The ever-so-stunning The Woodlands was a drawing on a piece of paper when the brewers and lab biologists at SweetWater started isolating Brettanomyces strains and souring bacteria for the brewery’s wild ale program. On this day, as the thunder boomed over the city, the years of microscopic work were about to pay off. Isolated Brettanomyces strains, along with a Belgian saison yeast and Lactobacillus bacteria were set free in the tank. Nature will handle it from here.
About 8 months later, an American wheat ale base (similar to the now-retired Sch’Wheat Wheat Ale) topped off tank then allowed ferment out before finally being transferred to the brewery’s oak foeders for a full year. Cambium was finally bottled in December and has been conditioning on their House Brett ever since.
A bit like a Robert Frost poem, two roads diverged for that pale ale wort and only one went into the wood(s). This weekend you’ll see it really made all the difference.
Nearly two years in the making, SweetWater Cambium will debut in 500-milliliter bottles on January 27th.
Style: American Wild Ale (Foeder Aged)
Availability: 500ml Bottles
Debut: 1/27/18
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- Foudres just inside the main entrance.
Stone Brewing will release their first wild ale in December
Stone Brewing will debut their first sour/wild ale in December.
For the last two years Stone Brewing – known worldwide for their love of hoppy beers, has been quietly designing a wild ale program. As many breweries across the United States are debuting sour ale programs, Stone seemed content with what they do best. IPAs. As you can imagine, this announcement takes the brewery’s fan base by surprise.
Stone’s Mission Warehouse production facility has been churning out barrel-aged and small-batch beers for some time now. The brewery decided that Mission is home base for future “arrogant” sour ales.
Stone Mission Warehouse Apricot is the inaugural release. The base beer was soured, then blended with barrel-aged barleywine and a strong, highly-hopped tripel. Those two threads were aged on three different strains of Brettanomyces yeast. To top it all off, Stone shoved 500 pounds of peaches into the 4 oak barrels used to age this new release. The process took 18 months to complete.
Stone Mission Warehouse Sour is on sale now through Eventbrite. 4-packs of Apricot must be picked up at Stone’s company store in Escondido, Liberty Station or Pasadena from December 3 through 31st.
Style: American Wild Ale (w/ Apricots. Oak Aged.)
Availability: 11.2oz Bottles
Debut: December 2017
8.7% ABV
Image: Stone Brewing
One of the world’s most exclusive coffee beans, a wood cellar, & New Belgium Geisha
Billed as the “loftiest sour” they’ve ever crafted, New Belgium Geisha debuts.
There are a lot of elements at play in this La Folie Grand Reserve release. First, the name “Geisha”. It comes from the highly sought after Geisha coffee bean that hails from Ethiopia. It found international fame after the bean was imported to Panama and produced by Hacienda La Esmerelda. The family-run coffee grower submitted the bean to the Best of Panama Auction in 2004, winning first place. The Geisha bean continued to win five more times from 2005 to 2010. Basically, it’s a badass.
New Belgium Wood Cellar Director Lauren Woods Limbach’s vision was to blend the Geisha bean’s delicate aromatics with the brewery’s sour beer Oscar. Incidentally, Oscar is the base beer that is blended into famed La Folie Sour Brown Ale. In order to do so, the brewery needed another “threaded” beer to make Geisha work.
Local Fort Collins-based Troubadour Maltings provided a few special malt varieties for a special beer to thread into Geisha. New Belgium calls is a “smuggler” beer, bringing in the oils needed for beer head retention, bridging the gap between Oscar, and the Geisha bean.
“There’s this apprehension to do right by Geisha. I’ve thought more about this beer than any beer I’ve made in my life. Not just because of the expense of the coffee, but because we’re attempting to put something that doesn’t have the classic coffee aroma—floral, tea, notes of citrus and stone fruit—into a coffee beer. – Lauren Woods Limbach
One of the world’s most exclusive coffee beans, an award-winning wild ale program, and an expert blender come together for what New Belgium hops is a truly unique and bold American wild ale.
New Belgium Geisha is available in 750-milliliter bottles in select markets, and both of the brewery’s taprooms starting November 3rd. There’s a price tag for this kind of sensory experience. A bottle’s retail price is around $48 dollars.
Style: American Wild Ale (w/ Coffee. Oak Aged.)
Availability: 750ml Bottles, Corked & Caged.
Debut: November 2017
7.9% 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
