Tag Archives: Bourbon Barrel Aged Beer

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Pacific Brewing Celebrates One Year of Serving Beer

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A year ago I was at Pacific Brewing Company when they had their grand opening party. Now they are still around and pouring their core beers. For the anniversary party they put on an anniversary double IPA, a barrel aged version of their stout, and a double dry hopped version of the Bombora IPA. Unlike other anniversary parties around they didn’t have a price at the door so you could come by and have a few tasters or a pint without any of the other stuff if you want.

Pacific Brewing 1 year Anniversary 05

I had a taster flight that included the barrel aged stout, anniversary double IPA, double dry hopped Bombora IPA and the Sticky Icky. To me the barrel aged stout was a bit more heavy on the vanilla and didn’t have much of the bourbon flavors I was expecting. They seem to have decided to showcase the flavors of the base beer. I could have done with more bourbon flavors because the vanilla gave it a little syrupy sweet flavor that didn’t work for me.

Pacific Brewing 1 year Anniversary 03

Then came the anniversary double IPA, a nice lightly herbal beer with a solid bitter bite and mild amount of sticky sweetness. This was great and would go nicely as a pint. Then I had the double dry hopped Bombora, a sticky dank citrus beer with plenty of extra kick thanks to the extra hops. It stood up to the anniversary even though I had it after the anniversary double.

Pacific Brewing 1 year Anniversary 02

I ended with the Sticky Icky to see how it held up since the opening. It seemed a little less sweet than I remember it being but it was a bit more balanced, which gave it a very pleasant taste. The beer had a nice light roasty flavor and mild hop bite, making it a proper stronger amber without going overboard like many try to do.

Pacific Brewing 1 year Anniversary 04 Pacific Brewing 1 year Anniversary 01

It was good to see Pacific sticking to their core beers they started with. Since opening they added the televisions so they have some of the games on as well. I’m glad they managed to keep similar hop flavors going in their anniversary beer despite the difficulty of getting many of the hops they likely used to start with. I look forward to what Pacific will come up with over the next year.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Green Flash Silva Stout Release Party 2015

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Green Flash had a special release party to promote the first of many barrel aged beers they are aging at their new facility out in Poway they call Cellar 3. Though they weren’t able to hold this event in Poway, they had a big bash and brought out a number of specialty beers for the occasion. Among the special versions was a special coffee version of the stout that somehow was stronger than the original version, clocking in at a gigantic 13%.

Silva Stout Release 2015 01 Silva Stout Release 2015 02

Also for sale at the tasting room were bottles of the barrel aged stout. Silva Stout is a blend of bourbon barrel aged double stout and the regular double stout. The coffee version was so strong that I could feel it seriously after only a small 4oz taster. Flavor wise it was not particularly boozy and had a good smooth caramel flavor along with a nutty coffee taste.

Silva Stout Release 2015 03 Silva Stout Release 2015 04

According to the flavor notes they handed out with bottles of Silva Stout the grand opening of their Cellar 3 will be held on May 16, 2015. I look forward to visiting that facility to taste the different beers they have but for now some of the special beers they brought out for the party should hang around for a little bit.

First set of tasters, Left to right, Brett Saison, Apricot Le Freak Barrique, Boysenberry Saison, Candella Barley Wine.
First set of tasters, Left to right, Brett Saison, Le Freak Barrique, Boysenberry Saison, Candella Barley Wine.

Among them they had some barrel aged Saisons with Brett, a delicious barleywine in collaboration with Cigar City, two varieties of Silva Stout on tap including one extra strong version with Mostra Coffee, a barrel aged Le Freak with Brett and an Apricot version of the same with Brett.

Second set of tasters, Cask Silva Stout front left, Black Tiger, back left, Coffee Silva Stout right back, Apricot Le Freak front right.
Second set of tasters, Cask Silva Stout front left, Black Tiger, back left, Coffee Silva Stout right back, Apricot Le Freak front right.

Of these the standouts to me were the Candella Barleywine, Le Freak Barrique, and Apricot Le Freak Barrique. The new recipe of Le Freak works great with the barrel aging and addition of Brett. The Silva Stout was also quite delicious with plenty of smooth chocolate and bourbon flavors. I also came home with two bottles of Silva Stout.

Mango Inferno (left) and Silva Stout (right).
Mango Inferno (left) and Silva Stout (right).

I was glad to see that the bottles of Silva Stout were still available three hours after opening and there will also be quite a few that were sent out to distributors you might find in stores. The opening of Cellar 3 should mean more availability of Silva Stout and hopefully some of these delicious Brett Le Freak varieties as well going forward. If you want to try some of these beers you should stop by the tasting room over the next few days so that you can taste some before they go.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Portland Beer Adventures Part 8 – Hopworks Urban Brewery

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Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) is another one of those big breweries that I tried outside of Portland and had to stop by. They wanted me to try a large number of tasters in order to get a flight so I elected to do a few small tastes since I was on my way to the waterfall. I ended up trying most of their beers I was interested in. In all I tried the Hopworks IPA, Survival Stout, Cascadian Dark Ale, UK Style IPA, White IPA, Kentucky Christmas, and Army of Darkness.
Portland Beer 18
The Hopworks IPA had a nice bright pine flavor but it was also joined by some unpleasant soapy flavor possibly from using too much mosaic. The soapy taste kept me from enjoying this one very much. The Survival Stout was quite drinkable with a nice mix of coffee and roasted malts. It was not as full bodied as I prefer in my stouts and didn’t really stand out in any way.

The Cascadian Dark Ale was an interesting style I hadn’t heard of before but it seems in the Pacific Northwest area breweries like to hop up dark ales and since they use Cascade hops frequently it makes sense to give it a whole new name. It was good and balanced but to me felt like the hops could have been made a bit more prominent. The UK style IPA was far too mellow for my tastes and didn’t have much unique flavor to it.
Beer selection when I visited.
Beer selection when I visited.
The White IPA was quite dry and bitter but didn’t seem to have much of a particular hop flavor to recommend it. I didn’t much care for this one. The Kentucky Christmas was a delightful treat, a bourbon barrel aged Winter beer. The underlying beer let the bourbon flavors shine. I didn’t have much of this because it was on the stronger side and I was on the way to a hike. Finally, the Army of Darkness was a unique chocolate raspberry Russian Imperial Stout. If you have ever had raspberry filled chocolates before, this does a fantastic job of presenting that in a beer. The two flavors went really well together but like the previous one I wasn’t ready to order a full pour of something so strong at the time.

In all, I was mostly pretty let down by the mainstay beers offered by HUB but they did have some fantastic specialty beers. If you enjoy the more mellow Northwest IPAs then you might like the IPA. I did not eat any food while I was visiting HUB.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Tasting Room

Portland Beer Adventures Part 4 – Hair of the Dog

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One of the more interesting breweries I visited in Portland was a smaller brewery called Hair of the Dog. I only tried three different beers there but I had some very impressive brews. While there I tried tasters of the Blue Dot Double IPA, Beer Week Strong Pale Lager, Adam Stout, and Bourbon Barrel Aged Beer Week. I only got a small taste of the Adam but it was enough for me to review it.

 

Blue Dot Double IPA was a delicious slightly sweet beer that focused on the citrus and tropical fruit with a little bit of a soapy flavor in there. At 7% it doesn’t really fit what I consider a double IPA but it had a lot of good flavors. Second on the list was the Beer Week Strong Pale Lager. The higher alcohol content was certainly noticeable but I really liked the way it mixed the pilsner flavor with the citrus hops. It also wasn’t as bitter as the Blue Dot while still presenting plenty of hop flavors.
Blue Dot Double (left), Beer Week Strong Pale Lager (right).
Blue Dot Double (left), Beer Week Strong Pale Lager (right).
The Adam is very close to a stout so I will refer to it as such though the brewers don’t want to label it a stout. The flavors tended towards the plum malts with a little bit of chocolate. Though I could taste some chocolate flavors, I found that they were overpowered by the malts a little too much for me.

 

Finally, the bourbon barrel aged beer week was a great introduction to how a hoppy beer responds to bourbon barrel aging. Because it wasn’t particularly malt-forward to begin with it had plenty of room to highlight the flavor of the bourbon. This is one of those beers best saved for those who appreciate a good bourbon. Some might say that the brewers went a bit too overboard with the barrel aging, but I think it was just right.

 

With plenty of bold flavors from intense amounts of hops, I was quite impressed overall by the beers offered by Hair of the Dog. I also really liked the Brussels Sprouts they had as an appetizer. It was reasonably priced and yet perfectly cooked and delicious. It was just the right size for a good snack to go with the beers.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Beer Reviews

Green Flash White IPA 2014

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Continuing in the series of special releases for 2014, Green Flash put out the White IPA on June 3, 2014. I stopped by the brewery today to try it and will share my thoughts. While I was there, i was glad to see that the Black Lager had returned and they had a special release of a Bourbon Aged Trippel.

White IPA (right), Bourbon Barrel Trippel (left)
White IPA (right), Bourbon Barrel Trippel (left)

The White IPA has a prominent flavor of the Belgian yeast. Behind that there are some light hop flavors of citrus and pine but i wouldn’t fault any casual drinker for not noticing them. The Bourbon Aged Trippel was a solid entry with plenty of sweet bourbon flavors. Behind that you can taste the Belgian yeast a little bit but the flavor is primarily on the bourbon. I ended up with a pint of the new recipe of the West Coast IPA which now tended towards citrus and lemon flavors.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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