Wine Aged

Surly Celebrates 5 with Five

Surly Brewing’s (Brooklyn Center, MN) fifth anniversary beer – “Five” will be available soon.  Each year the beer is different, and nothing short of phenomenal.  Last year I named Surly “Four” as one of the best beers I Continue Reading →

NEW RELEASE: Mikkeller Red Wine Big Worse

Mikkeller’s Red Wine barrel aged Big Worse Barleywine has arrived stateside.  With this edition, Mikkeller has 4 “Big Worse” barleywine editions.  The biggest in the series is “Big WorsT” a massive 19.2% abv barleywine.  Slightly smaller, yet still big is Continue Reading →

Lost Abbey’s Framboise de Amorosa

Raspberry fiends, here’s one for you. Lost Abbey (San Marcos, CA) is releasing Framboise de Amorosa again in 2011.  LA touts this beer as “their first foray into the world of raspberry beers.”

Amorosa begins as Lost and Found Ale Continue Reading →

Avery Dihos Dactylion

Avery Brewing (Boulder, CO) has a very successful and very rare.  Only 248 cases produced.  Release date – Friday, 2/25/11.

Experimentation.
Ales and lagers that defy styles or categories. This is what we are about: our driving force, our passion. To further facilitate this innovative spirit, we’ve developed our Barrel-Aged Series where anything, and we mean ANYTHING, goes! Brewed for those as adventurous as we are!

Flavor Profile:
Aged for eighteen months in fresh Cabernet Sauvignon wine barrels, Dihos Dactylion features a primary fermentation using a proprietary blend of saison yeasts, a secondary fermentation of our house brettanomyces wild yeast strain, along with lactobacillus and pediococcus bacteria added to sour things up. Dihos Dactylion bursts with aggressive aromas of red wine and a touch of brett; delightfully sour to the taste, initial lactic acid flavors hit high in the cheekbones before transitioning to complex layers of soft fruit, oaky-tannins and red wine.

NEW RELEASE: Cabernet Aged Below Decks

Another edition of the Mutiny Fleet by Heavy Seas (Baltimore, MD) that has arrived alongside Bourbon Barrel Aged Below Decks Barleywine, is Cabernet Barrel Aged Below Decks.

Below Decks is an English style barleywine released once a year by the brewery. Continue Reading →

Posted in New Releases, Surly Brewing

Surly Celebrates 5 with Five

Surly Brewing’s (Brooklyn Center, MN) fifth anniversary beer – “Five” will be available soon.  Each year the beer is different, and nothing short of phenomenal.  Last year I named Surly “Four” as one of the best beers I tried in 2010 for an article I co-wrote for Paste Magazine.  While last year was an espresso milk stout, Five will be a wild ale with some wine aging.  In early February, a single barrel tasting of Five made an appearance, dubbed “Pentagram.”  While Five is a blend of off all the wine barrels used for aging, Pentagram was just one barrel.

In the Surly brewhouse brewing our Anniversary beers mean one thing, forget what ya know and try something different.   In honor of FIVE glorious years we bring you a 100% Brettanomyces fermented Dark Ale Aged in red wine barrels.  Flavors of sour cherry, tobacco, oak and classic “Brett” barnyard funk balanced by Dark Munich malt chewiness.  Enjoy immediately or age at cellar temperatures for a couple of years. 100% Brettanomyces fermented Dark Ale aged in red wine barrels.

Style: American Wild Ale (wine barrel aged)
Availability: 750ml bottles, draft. One time release.
Arrival: June, 2011
7.87% ABV

Previous Editions of Anniversary beers are:
One: A “quadruple Bock
Two:  Fruit Beer, Oak Aged Stout brewed with cranberries
Three:  Black Braggot.  Brewed w/ 50% honey & 50% Munich Malt
Four:  Milk Stout w/ espresso
Bottle Artwork for Five – AestheticApparatus.com

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Coming Soon, Russian River Brewing, Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada Exportation Aged In Russian River Barrels

Exportation Ale is a draft only offering from Sierra Nevada Brewing.  Google yields a tapping event for this beer during Philly Beer Week 2011.

Teresa’s Cafe in Wayne, Pennsylvania will host a special tapping for Exportation June 9th, 5pm.  Teresa provides this description:

If you liked ExPorter, imagine it aged in Dumol Pinot Noir Barrels at Russian River for nearly a year…

No word on how many barrels produced.

6.3% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Mikkeller, New Releases

NEW RELEASE: Mikkeller Red Wine Big Worse

Mikkeller’s Red Wine barrel aged Big Worse Barleywine has arrived stateside.  With this edition, Mikkeller has 4 “Big Worse” barleywine editions.  The biggest in the series is “Big WorsT” a massive 19.2% abv barleywine.  Slightly smaller, yet still big is “Big Worse” weighing in at 12.8% .  Then come the barrel aged editions.  Bourbon Big Worse, and now Red Wine Big Worse Barleywine.

Big Worse Description:
Big Worse is the long awaited big brother of the small test brew Big Bad Barley Wine. The idea behind Big Worse is still to make a simple yet heavy barley wine – just like it’s smaller brother. But this time both the alcohol and bitterness has been pumped up! Big Worse is both thick and sweet and is the perfect beer for desserts. Enjoy it now or keep it for many years. Best stored dark and at cellar temperature.

Style: Barleywine, aged in Red Wine barrels
Hops: Nugget, Cascade, Centennial
Malts: Pils, caramunich
Yeast: Ale yeast
Adjuncts: Candi sugar

Taste Expectations: Sweet fruit, oak notes, vanilla, & tannins from the wine.  Boozy, candi sugar, w/ red wine finish.

Availability: 375 ML bottles, capped. Less than 200 cases shipped to U.S.

12% ABV

 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Lost Abbey, Seasonal Return

Lost Abbey’s Framboise de Amorosa

Raspberry fiends, here’s one for you. Lost Abbey (San Marcos, CA) is releasing Framboise de Amorosa again in 2011.  LA touts this beer as “their first foray into the world of raspberry beers.”

Amorosa begins as Lost and Found Ale (Abbey ale, w/ raisins).  After brewing, it’s transferred into red wine barrels where it spends the next year getting raspberries added to it 3 different times.  Here’s the the beer equation (adding Lost & Found, plus the extra TLC)

Style: Dubbel, Lost & Found. American Wild Ale, Amorosa.
Hops: German Magnum and German Tettnang
Malts: Two Row, Wheat, Medium and Dark English Crystal, Special B and Chocolate Malt.
Adjuncts: Dextrose, raisin puree.
1 year, red wine barrels.
Raspberries

2011 Release is March 26th.

LA’s Flavor Profile: The first sip produces a sweet start with a long drawn out sour finish. So of the sweetnewss from the raspberries comes out before acidic notes join the mix. On the back end of the beer is a smoothing oak character which keeps the beer from becoming dull.

Availability: 375 ml bottles. Lost Abbey ships to 8 states.  Who/where gets them after the release? Mystery.

7% ABV

 

 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Avery Brewing, Coming Soon

Avery Dihos Dactylion

Avery Brewing (Boulder, CO) has a very successful and very rare.  Only 248 cases produced.  Release date – Friday, 2/25/11. Here are the details on this brew…

Experimentation.
Ales and lagers that defy styles or categories. This is what we are about: our driving force, our passion. To further facilitate this innovative spirit, we’ve developed our Barrel-Aged Series where anything, and we mean ANYTHING, goes! Brewed for those as adventurous as we are!

Flavor Profile:
Aged for eighteen months in fresh Cabernet Sauvignon wine barrels, Dihos Dactylion features a primary fermentation using a proprietary blend of saison yeasts, a secondary fermentation of our house brettanomyces wild yeast strain, along with lactobacillus and pediococcus bacteria added to sour things up. Dihos Dactylion bursts with aggressive aromas of red wine and a touch of brett; delightfully sour to the taste, initial lactic acid flavors hit high in the cheekbones before transitioning to complex layers of soft fruit, oaky-tannins and red wine.

Beer Rundown:

Style: Sour Ale, Barrel aged
Aged 18 months in fresh Cabernet Sauvignon barrels from Plumpjack Vineyards (CA)
Selectively blended from the very best 13 barrels of an initial 36 barrel batch

10.74% ABV

$8 per 12oz bottle
Limit 6 per customer

Don’t live in Colorado? 200+ cases of Dihos Dactylion will be put up for grabs from the Avery Tap Room on 2/25. If any remains unsold after the release, we will allocate it among the best Avery beer bars and bottle shops around the country.

Upcoming Releases:

Collaboration Not Litigation Ale (Batch #5) — February 18th, 2011 at the Boulder Strong Ale Festival

The Maharaja Imperial IPA Batch #13 Releases on Friday, March 11th 6PM-10PM

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Heavy Seas, New Releases

NEW RELEASE: Cabernet Aged Below Decks

Another edition of the Mutiny Fleet by Heavy Seas (Baltimore, MD) that has arrived alongside Bourbon Barrel Aged Below Decks Barleywine, is Cabernet Barrel Aged Below Decks.

Below Decks is an English style barleywine released once a year by the brewery.  Heavy Seas took the Below Decks and aged it in two different barrels.  You saw there earlier post about bourbon oak barrels.  This version of course is aged in cabernet oak.  This is the first release of this wine barrel aged barleywine.

Taste Expectations — Wine grape, Oak, fruit, caramel, and vanilla.  Some sweet flavors are expressed in the taste.  Some tannin style flavor from the wine is also expressed.

Availability — 22oz Bombers, and draft offerings.  Small batch, seasonally.  This is the inaugural release.

10% ABV

5/28 — Both editions in stock at Hop City.

5/28 – Both in stock at Green’s

by Reid Ramsay