Tag: Barrel Aged Beer
Deschutes Brewing Co. Mirror Mirror 2009 Reserve Series
When we came back from this summer’s trip out west, I brought back a few gems from our various brewery stops. Since then, I’ve been covetously holding onto these beers, knowing that someday I’d be opening the only bottle of that beer that I had, and in some cases may ever have. Who knows when or if we’ll be out that way again?
As the months have passed, we’ve opened up one or two of these treasures, but there have been a few that I’ve been loath to crack open – I’ve just been too excited to try them. Among these was a bottle of Deschutes Mirror Mirror, the oak aged barleywine that they released last spring. It was one of the beers I was keenly looking for during our trip, was super excited to find, and possibly more excited to try.
I was finally inspired to open it as a result of the work we’ve been doing to plan a series of tastings at Amherst Coffee that will take place over the next few months. One of the tastings we’re going to do is a whiskey and beer theme, where we’ll taste a whiskey alongside a beer that was aged in that distillery’s barrels. So, as I brainstormed the various barrel-aged beers that are available today, my mind turned to the few special beers that I’ve been holding onto, and Mirror Mirror in particular.
Deschutes first released Mirror Mirror in 2006, but then didn’t release it again until April 2009. In 2006 it was the first beer in their Reserve Series, a series that now includes The Abyss, The Dissident, and Black Butte XXI. Mirror Mirror, The Abyss, and Black Butte XXI all have some portion of the finished brew aged in bourbon barrels, while The Dissident is brewed using a couple of strains of Brettanomyces, producing an oud bruin style beer.
35% of Mirror Mirror was aged in bourbon barrels, the other 65% in stainless steel. The beer was brewed to a strength of 11%, with 30 IBUs thrown in for good measure. From start to finish, Mirror Mirror took Deschutes 10 months to produce, with much of this time spent in bourbon barrels.
The beer pours a crimson-orange red with a creamy off-white heads that surges up and then drops just as quickly, leaving a thin lacing in its wake. The nose has rich aromas of toffee, malt, and caramel, accompanied by a trace of mint. The palate is soft and velvety with loads of creamy, viscous texture supported by medium carbonation. Once the flavors kick in you can tell it’s not 100% barrel aged. Instead of being overly sweet, the barrel aging element is well-balanced and mixes well with the big malt body. The flavors are a blend of caramel, toffee, vanilla and spiciness and tannins from the barrel aging, alongside a deeply malty body, bready, rye flavors, and an edge of bitter, piney hop flavors. The finish is soft and mellow, with flavors of caramel, crystal malt, and hop bitterness.
This is a totally amazing beer. I kick myself for not picking up two bottles during our trip (why did I buy just one bottle? what was I thinking?!), but am very, very glad that I had the chance to try it. Excellent flavors all in great balance. If you ever come across this in a shop, pick it up fast. Two bottles. Yet again, Deschutes has knocked the ball out of the park. I’ve really been impressed by all of the beers of theirs that I’ve tried, and once again can only wish we were somewhere that their beers were distributed to.
So this leaves The Abyss, their bourbon-barrel aged imperial stout, as the last of their Reserve Series beers that I have not tried. Given my love of this style of beer, it does give me a bit of a pang to figure I’ll probably not have the chance to try it, simply given the crazy demand for it, and my living on the east coast. But who knows, maybe someday I’ll be out in Bend or Portland on The Abyss release day. That would be amazing.
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Founders Brewing Co. Old Curmudgeon
Lately, I’ve been been mulling over the phenomena that Founders Brewing Company’s beers have become. Myself, I only really discovered their wares last year, in the fall of 2008. That was when I first tried their Breakfast Stout, and I never really looked back. Since then I’ve tried most any beer from them that I’ve found, worked hard to get my hands on a 4-pack of the Kentucky Breakfast Stout, and am already looking forward to trying some of their newer beers at the upcoming Extreme Beer Fest.
But what’s really caught my attention has been the overwhelming response to their newest beer, Nemesis, a wheat wine aged in bourbon barrels for 9 months. I first saw this announced a couple of weeks ago, although rumors about it have been bouncing about for a while now. Since the announcement of its imminent release, the hype-driven beer culture has gone into full-swing, and more forum posts, news items, etc. have been posted about this beer than I would have imagined, despite it not even being released yet.
I don’t mean to sound curmudgeonly (an awful joke, I know). I’d love the chance to try Nemesis once it’s been released. Whether I’ll be able to, given the high-demand it’s sure to be in, is anyone’s guess.
But here’s the thing, I’m not sure that I’m really so amped to take part in the running around to try and find some of this beer in a shop. I’m sure the beer will be great, perhaps even mind-blowingly incredible. But I think there are three reasons my hesitance:
- My fridge is full of so many good beers right now, some that we still haven’t gotten to from our trip out West, and I’m finding it hard to get super-excited about chasing down something else new.
- Even when I do go to the shop nowadays, there is such a plethora of exciting beers I haven’t tried, and none involve me running around and calling shops like a nut-case.
- Founders themselves are to blame! Their beers are all so good, and some are outright incredible, and while they may not all be barrel-aged wheat wines, they’re super tasty, and much easier to find.
Focusing on reason #3, we can take this bottle of Old Curmudgeon as perfect evidence. Here is a beer that hasn’t been too hard to find hereabouts, and comes in fair-priced 4-packs, as with most of Founders beers. I picked up a 4-pack of it while looking for American-brewed examples of Old Ales, and was surprised to find out when I got it home that it’s also aged in bourbon barrels. Given my unending appreciation for beers aged in bourbon barrels, this was a real coup.
Old Curmudgeon is one of Founders’ seasonal beers, released in late fall/early winter each year. It’s brewed to a final ABV of 9.8% with 50 IBUs alongside. Interestingly, it’s brewed using molasses, in addition to a pretty big malt bill.
A vigorous pour yields a thin head that quickly dissipates, leaving little trace on top of the beer. The color is amber-orange, hazy and nearly opaque. It’s mesmerizing to watch just how slowly the bubbles rise to the surface, like they have to force their way up through the beer. The nose is rich and heady, with notes of caramel, mesquite honey, bourbon, and deep malty flavors. The flavors on the palate are similar, bringing caramel, viscous, syrupy, bready malt, vanilla, bourbon, and smoky honey, with the addition of a subtle hop flavor and bitterness. Very thick and velvety texture, with just a prickling carbonation. The finish has flavors of bready malt, caramel, and bourbon, with no hop flavor but a lingering hop bitterness. Very long, finish punctuated with flavors of bourbon-soaked raisins.
Wow, this is a rich, decadent, dessert-in-a-glass kind of beer. Very enjoyable, but one glass really did it for me. All in all, the flavors just avoided being cloying, instead really leaving your palate coated with layers of rich, warm, sugars. Definitely give it a try, as long as you’re a big fan of bourbon barrel-aged beers.
*Note: despite my detailed explanation of why I won’t be running around trying to find a 4-pack of Nemesis when it comes out, I wouldn’t even be remotely surprised to find myself doing that. In fact, I most likely am guaranteed to do just that, simply because I wrote this post explaining why I won’t…
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