Literally the same day that I had met with the owner of Valiant Brewing company and locked down on running their 13% oaked Russian Imperial Stout, Chernyy Medved, I received and email from Chase Healey, the owner of Prairie Artisan Ales, asking what styles I was interested in running in The Rare Beer Club® in Q4. We featured Prairie Noir, an Imperial Stout Aged in Oak Whiskey Barrels, more than two years ago and after meeting Chase last October at The Festival, I was really eager to run them again. Really cool guy making outstanding beer. And Prairie Noir doesn’t have a 99 rating on RateBeer by chance. It’s world class stuff. Chase suggested we consider a tequila barrel aged version and I’ve been emailing him monthly ever since!

It’s not a done deal yet, but I’ll be doing my best to lock down something dark and delicious, more than likely something that’s spent some time on wood, for October, November or December. I kinda like the idea of running a Russian Imperial Stout from Prairie and Valiant within a 3 month span and am quite confident we wouldn’t get too many complaints from our members as that style always goes over well. That said, Okie, a 10% Imperial Brown Ale Aged in Oak Whiskey Barrels and The Beer that Saved Christmas, a 10% Old Ale Aged in Oak Barrels, both sound pretty tasty. So much beer, so little time.

Wish me luck and stay tuned!

Prost!
Kris

One might think that running the country’s best beer of the month club would be a glamorous gig, sitting back quaffing high gravity malted nectar all day, rubbing elbows with some of the coolest entrepreneurs you’ll ever meet, and turning your customers on to really, really good craft beers. Truth be told, heading up the sourcing of the beers we feature is in fact the most important thing I do around here, but I don’t get to meet the men behind these beers face to face more than a dozen times a year and quite a bit takes place via email and over the phone as with most businesses these days.

So it was a sincere pleasure to sit down with one of the owners and Head Brewer of Valiant Brewing, Brian Schroepfer, last Friday, to get to know each other a bit and talk about working together. Thirty minutes into the conversation he busted out a 2014 bottle of Chernyy Medved, a 13% Russian Imperial Stout brewed with cherries, vanilla and oak and said something like, “I think this is about the right temperature to open Kris. Do you have an opener?” It was Friday afternoon about 3 pm or so and after considering it for a nanosecond, I quickly produced some fine glassware and an opener. Wow. What an amazing beer. It mattered not that this beer was brewed in tribute to the OC Brew Ho Ho Holiday Ale Festival and that the average temp last week was approaching 90 degrees. It was surprisingly approachable for such a big beer, had a big full, viscous and round mouthfeel, and poured like motor oil that hadn’t been changed in quite some time. Smokey, roasted, and chocolate malt flavors intermingled with vanilla and hints of cherries in perfect harmony. Suffice to say, I was sold instantly.

Brian waited until the end of the meeting to let me know that he was confident that they could fit us into their production schedule so that we could run it this December. Further, we may just be able to pull off a Valiant Special Offer in The Rare Beer Club in February 2016, giving members a chance to try four other gems from this rising star of a brewery that only three years in and distributed largely only in Orange County, CA. What a way to end the week. Days like that remind me how lucky I am not to be moving big iron for IBM any more.

Prost!
Kris

We’ve been running the Brewer’s Collaboration series with one of our favorite importers, Artisanal Imports, for quite a few years now. The premise is that one of Belgium’s most prolific brewers, De Proef, teams up with a hot U.S. Craft brewer to collaborate on something that highlights each brewery’s strong points to come up with something truly unique, and I’m here to tell you, they’ve pulled it off every year. One of my favorites over the years was Flanders Fred, a strong ale lambic blended beer that was born from the collaboration with Hair of the Dog Brewing Co. I still have a few bottles of that bad boy tucked away in the back of my beer fridge…just waiting for the right moment.

So this year Left Hand’s Eric Wallace is collaborating with De Proef on a blend of their infamous Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout and De Proef’s Zoetzuur, a Flemish Red Ale. The brewery’s description doesn’t quite do it justice, but will give you a hint of what’s to come later this month: “It’s nearly black with roasted malts contributing complex flavors of licorice and blackstrap molasses balanced by lively herbal hop notes. The heavy foundation of the Wake Up Dead is enlivened by Zoetzuur’s tart cherry flavor and acidity from its mixed yeast fermentation.”

I’m as excited about Wekken Sour as I was Flanders Fred!

Prost!
Kris

We just placed our order for Odell’s 9.4% oak aged Imperial IPA and I can’t wait to hear what our members think about it. Historically, we haven’t seen a ton of brewers attempting to marry wood with aggressively hopped beers over the years, but I suspect that’s all about to change pretty quickly. Longtime members may recall another barrel-aged IPA that was featured this past year: Cigar City’s El Monstruo Lúpulo, a double IPA aged on Spanish cedar and spruce that was made exclusively for our members to commemorate our 20th anniversary. Seems fitting that this year, as The Rare Beer Club turns the legal drinking age of 21, we’re running another outstanding brewer, making another outstanding beer focused on the marriage of wood and hops.

As our newsletter writer, Ken Weaver, pointed out, “the combination of hops and wood-derived qualities is certainly an intriguing one, and this will likely find increasingly more traction going forward. Hops offer all sorts of different and endearing characteristics to beer—from the prototypical citruses, herbaceousness, spice, and grass, to tropical fruits and beyond—while different wood types can offer an equally diverse range of input: from the coconut brightness of American oak to the spicy, cinnamon aspects of Brazilian amburana wood.”

Okay, I’m officially thirsty as we near 5 o’clock. Not that happy hour is by any means a perquisite for popping the cork on an outstanding beer at my desk. Such is the luxury of owning The Rare Beer Club. Having a warehouse full of really good stuff at your disposal is always a good thang.

Where the hell was I going with all this? Got side tracked there. Barrel Thief. You’re going to LOVE it. It’s bottle-conditioned, well hopped, and aged in fresh American oak. You’ve got juicy, tropical hops melding with similarly generous oak-barrel notes. The nose offers aromatics of fresh melon, a melange of citrus (from grapefruit and fresh-squeezed lemon to angles of kaffir lime leaf and passion fruit), and of course that American oak. Don’t check out Ken’s full tasting notes on Barrel Thief unless you’re prepared to become a member to ensure you can get your hands on some of this stuff!

Prost!
Kris