Intention

Single-barrel barleywine blend aged in Thomas H Handy Rye barrels for 18 months, then cabernet barrels for 11 months with vanilla beans. Collaboration with Erosion Winery.

Intention is the second of our double-collaboration with Erosion Winery, and is a showcase of how a beer can be guided to its destination with careful intent.

In late 2021 we filled Thomas H Handy Rye barrels with a freshly brewed barleywine, and aged them for 18 months. Upon tasting, we found them to be very promising but that they could use a bit more complexity, so we made the decision to move them into freshly-emptied Cabernet Sauvignon barrels from our friends at Erosion Winery for double-barrel aging. These wine barrels were slightly larger than the Whisky barrels, so we made up the difference in volume with fresh imperial stout.

11 months later, the resulting beer was tasting fantastic with a combo of rich caramel, a hint of roast, spicy rye, and fruity notes from the cab, but had picked up a bit more oaky tannin from the wine barrel than we see from typical spirit barrel aging. So, an addition of freshly scraped vanilla beans into the barrel for two months smoothed everything out and brought it into balance for a unique and delicious result.

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