During a recent trip to Maryland, I grabbed a bottle of Heavy Seas Bourbon Barrel Aged Siren Noire – an Imperial Stout brewed with chocolate and aged in bourbon barrels (of course). I hadn’t seen this one in the Philadelphia area yet, so the choice was easy. At 9.5% ABV, I’m expecting rich chocolatey notes with some bourbon and oak undertones.
The Bruery just keeps churning out new beers. Some hitting the mark, some not, but always interesting. The next one on my “gotta try” list from them is the Smoking Wood, a Smoked Imperial Rye Porter aged in rye whiskey barrels. The malt is beachwood and cherrywood smoked, and the 2012 variety that I have clocks in at 13% ABV.
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For those who don’t know, Tired Hands Brewing Company in Ardmore, PA has to be one of the best local up and coming breweries in the Philadelphia area. Their focus on Saison/Farmhouse style beers, and the quality and craftsmanship of them set them apart from others. HandFarm is their first bottle release, a wine barrel aged Saison, coming in a waxed 500 ml bottle.
Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) could very well be the first American beer ever put into bourbon barrels. Their one-off variants of their base BCBS range from a 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle barrel aged variant, to their newest release, Cherry Rye. The Cherry Rye was aged in Rye Whiskey barrels with fresh whole Michigan cherries.
Shane and I recently shared a bottle of the limited release Double DBA (Double Barrel Ale) from Firestone Walker. The Double DBA is part of the Proprietor’s Reserve Series, Batch No. 001. Released at the end of July into distribution, this is dubbed a Barrel-Aged Imperial Extra Special Bitter, housed for 12 months in a combination of new American oak barrels and retired bourbon barrels.
