OK, so here we are, summer’s just under way, and we’ve already had our Barrel Aged Sexual Chocolate release for the year. Which means, for the uninitiated, there’s a gaping hole in our beer drinking schedule where Chocolate release traditionally lives (end of August/start of September).
Fear not my thirsty friends – there is another barrel-aged wonder in your future for that time slot.
Frequent readers of this blog (thank you btw) are familiar withwhy we moved Barrel Aged Sexual Chocolate’s release up this year – it’s all about the barrels.
At the end of last summer, we had the very good fortune to purchase almost 300 bourbon barrels from Buffalo Trace, the world’s most award-winning distillery and makers of some of the finest bourbons in the world.
After that special batch of Chocolate went into the barrels, along with a batch of our Barrel Aged Porter, we still had a bunch left over. Since bourbon barrels are best when used fresh out of the distillery, our Brewmaster went into full-bore evil scientist mode, creating a brand new beer to occupy those barrels.
The result? Dead and Berried – a bourbon barrel aged blackberry Imperial Stout, to be released sometime between mid-August and mid-September.
“I’ve always been a fan of fruit in darker beers,” says TL, our aforementioned Brewmaster. “The tartness of blackberries, mixed w/bourbon & wood, the deep rich coffee notes of an imperial stout . . . it just seemed like good flavor combination.”
Um, yeah.
As for the name? Well, TL has been to over two dozen Grateful Dead shows. Draw your own conclusions.
Dead and Berried (American Imperial Stout) is a completely different recipe from Sexual Chocolate (Russian Imperial Stout). It was brewed last fall, then spent a couple of weeks with 420 pounds of blackberry puree from Oregon swimming around in it. After that it went into our bourbony boozy barrels, where it’s been quietly getting delicious for five months now.
As with all rare beers, this one comes with some caveats. We won’t be bottling it, and unless you plan on attending the Denver Rare Beer Festival in October, it will only be available to you in our pub and tasting room.
Hey look on the bright side – it’s just one more reason to come visit us. And we love it when you come visit us.
In fact we can barrel-y wait.
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