Much like the semi-local St. Arnold brewery has done with its Bishop’s Barrel series, the Abita Brewing Company has announced that it will begin a series of very limited release bourbon barrel aged beers. The first beer in the series will be an imperial stout aged in Pappy Van Winkle barrels and will be named “Bourbon Street“, a very apropos title.
The most excellent staff at Bayou Craft dropped this bomb earlier today and I, for one, am stoked. Abita has been a little hit or miss with some of their offerings but they are never afraid to take a chance, i.e. their Grapefruit Harvest release due this winter. My experience in having drank numerous bourbon barrel aged stouts leads to believe that this beer will be something special. My hopes are up and I’m chomping at the bit to get to try this.
From the official release from Abita:
“Bourbon Street Stout is an Imperial Stout that is aged in Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon barrels. Our Imperial Stoute is brewed with a combination of pale, caramel, chocolate and roasted malts. Oats are also added to give the beer a fuller and sweeter taste. The roasted malts give the beer its dark color as well as its intense flavor and aroma. After fermentation the beer is cold aged for 6 weeks. This is necessary for all of the flavors of the malt and hops to balance and produce a very smooth flavor.
After the cold aging the beer is transferred into the bourbon barrels. It is then aged for another 8 weeks to absorb all of the flavors from the barrels. The result is a strong stout that brings out the roasted flavors from the malt and the warming toasted, vanilla, and bourbon flavors from the barrels.”
The beer will check in at a whopping 10% ABV which, if I’m not mistaken, will be Abita’s strongest beer to date (AndyGator checks in at 8%). The release of Bourbon Street will be sometime in December and I will venture a guess that it will fly off shelves.
beergrove 