The 2014 edition of Westbrook‘s BA Mexican Cake hasn’t even been released yet, but the Mount Pleasant brewery is already hinting at what’s in store for the 2015 release.
Tag Archives: barrel
Barrels, bottles, barleywines and more: An update on Conquest
Since celebrating its first anniversary back in January, Columbia’s Conquest brewery has kept itself mighty busy as it moves into its second year of production. Just this week alone, the brewery expanded the format in which its beers are available and took the first steps toward getting its barrel program up and running.
Here’s a rundown of what’s been going on down near Williams-Brice.
River Dog hosts special barrel-aged beer release
For such a young brewery, Ridgeland’s River Dog brewery has quite an adventurous barrel program. Their Pappy Van Winkle barrel-aged Quad has been well-received at numerous beer festivals across the state, and on March 1, the brewery is giving visitors at its tasting room a chance to taste a range of their BA offerings.
That Saturday, River Dog is offering a behind-the-scenes look at its barrel and sour program, including a talk with River Dog Brewmaster Dan Baker. In addition to the Pappy BA Quad, visitors will be able to sample River Dog’s Maker’s Mark Holiday Toffee Ale and Choco Rye Porter (aged in barrels for four months); Bitten by Bourbon; Cherry Oud Bruin Dog; Okatle Saison and Rye Dopplebock (being released for the first time); and Eureka Citrus Sour, a lemonade-ish sour ale.
There doesn’t look to be any additional cost for the event, so just show up to the tasting room at noon on the first and enjoy!
COAST releases 2013 BA Blackbeerd Thursday
Following the news last week that COAST would be bottling this year’s vintage of its barrel-aged Blackbeerd imperial stout this week comes the news that bottles of the beer will be released beginning this week.
Early Tuesday, COAST announced bombers of this year’s BA Blackbeerd will be available for purchase at the brewery beginning Thursday, December 5. This year’s release was aged in the same Blanton’s bourbon barrels as the 2012 vintage, giving the beer a more oaky characteristic in contrast to the bourbon-forward release last year. A total of 90 cases were bottled, with 20 sent to stores and 70 available at the brewery. As usual, the bottles at $15 each, and there is no purchase limit other than the legal limit of 288 oz. per person.
River Dog experimenting with barrel fermenting
There are a lot of ways to barrel age a beer. Sometimes unfermented wort is racked directly into barrels. Sometimes fermented beer is added and then allowed to age. And then there’s the happy medium: Allowing the beer to ferment in the barrel and seeing what magic happens.
That latter path is the one River Dog is currently taking. On Tuesday, they posted a photo of barrel fermentation in progress inside two barrels at the brewery. No word on what beer is in the barrels or what the barrels are, but it should be noted River Dog has a proclivity for Maker’s Mark barrels.
Conquest constructs barrel room, installs new fermenters
Growth and expansion has been in the cards for Conquest for some time now, and while they’re this close to expanding their brewing capacity, the short term has left them time for smaller in-house expansions. Namely: The construction of a barrel room and the installations of two new 3 BBL plastic fermenters.
A couple of weeks ago, the crew used some spare materials around the brewery to build a modestly sized barrel room adjacent to their cooler. While not the scale of a Westbrook barrel room, it’ll still give the brewers a chance to experiment with some BA brews, with room for about a dozen or so barrels.
The room will also be the new home of Conquest’s new fermenters, each a 3 BBL plastic operation. Those fermenters will be used for smaller, more experimental batches of beer, including the brewery’s one-off Cyclops releases. The first two brews for the new fermenters will be The Finisher, Conquest’s behemoth 17.5% ABV imperial stout (which will tie up one of the fermenters for six months) and the saison I collaborated on with them. More on that later ;)
Apple Brandy, Red Wine BA Mexican Cake are coming
Remember the other day when I said bourbon barrels weren’t the only ones Westbrook‘s Mexican Cake was aged in, and that other barrel-aged versions of the imperial stout were anxiously waiting to be bottled?
A day after they teased BBL Mexican Cake, Westbrook on Thursday tweeted out a photo of a version that had been aging in apple brandy barrels and would soon be bottled. Soon after that, it was announced a third variant – this one aged in red wine barrels – was also on the way.
What’s the deal with these beers? Here’s what we know so far:
- Mexican Cake has been aging in two Jack Daniels barrels, two apple brandy barrels and two red wine barrels. The bourbon barrel one has been bottled and the apple brandy version has been racked into the fermenter.
- All of these barrels were filled in January 2012, so this is the first anniversary batch of Mexican Cake. However, the beer put in barrels was the base without any spices or peppers. So, when the beer is racked into the fermenter, the cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa nibs and Habaneros were added, meaning you still get the Mexican Cake you know any love with a little something extra.
- Between 30-50 cases of each variant will be released – obviously less for the smaller barrels – and possibly at the same time. There is no solid release date, although June has been floated as a possibility. The label artwork is not yet finished.
- This will be a brewery only release.
