Rare Beer Club 4-Bottle Selections - September 2025
Reuss
Brouwerij Kerkom – Sint-Truiden, Flanders, Belgium
[Blonde Ale & Lambic Sour Ale Blend – 6.5% ABV]
Brewing has been going on under the Kerkom name since 1878, when the original Kerkom Brewery was founded by Evarist Clerinx. Fast forward to 1999: Marc Limet, masterbrewer and hop-hero, took up as Kerkom’s owner and brewer. The brewery was essentially an extension of the home he has made with his wife Marina, and their on-site pub feels like a welcoming nook of their house to this day. Marc has put 100% of his efforts into bringing character and flare to Belgium’s local brewing scene, creating new beers with old-world composition, and as of 2022 he’s partnered with the superb Brouwerij De Ranke for production of his Kerkom beers. We’re excited to have the opportunity to bring you Kerkom’s Reuss, which sees very light distribution in the U.S. – and has been essentially absent entirely for a few years. This batch was imported and allocated predominately for the club, with just a handful of extra cases destined for retail distribution.
Reuss, a deftly handled blend from brewer Marc Limet, is composed of about 80% blonde and 20% lambic. According to our contact at De Ranke, the second component is itself actually a blend of lambics including some Girardin and some Eylenbosch in addition to their own De Ranke lambic, making for a truly special and unique blended ale. In the aromatics, the blonde ale aspect of the blend showed through the most, offering up notes of spice and other soft phenolics: a heady, toasty, yeasty Belgian pale ale, with the undercurrent of that spontaneously fermented lambic element beneath. Where the aroma is more blonde ale with a citrusy tart backdrop, the first taste shows lambic playing a huge role. There’s juicy, lemony acidity in abundance: the tang and subtle funk of a precise gueuze. There’s also a welcomed touch of herbal bitterness throughout, courtesy of two light add-ins of Belgian hops on the blonde ale side. This beer feels just super fresh and beautifully built.
10W-40: Maple Breakfast Coffee
Hi-Wire Brewing – Asheville, NC
[Imperial Coffee Stout w/ Vanilla and Lactose – 8% ABV (16-oz cans)]
Hi-Wire Brewing was founded in the summer of 2013 by Adam Charnack and Chris Frosaker, and it quickly rose to become one of North Carolina's fastest-growing craft breweries. Based in Asheville, Hi-Wire has a main production site affectionately called “The Big Top”, and they also have their South Slope Specialty Brewery & Taproom, which focuses on experimental, small-batch, barrel-aged, wild, and sour ales. Over the years, Hi-Wire has earned several accolades, including numerous NC Brewers Cup medals, being named Best New North Carolina Brewery in 2013 by RateBeer, and winning multiple gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival.
In September of 2024, Hurricane Helene severely damaged the brewery. As (bad) luck would have it, we were scheduled to feature Hi-Wire in the RBC in October 2024, but the whole batch was lost under 15 feet of floodwaters. To say we’re pleased to feature Hi-Wire less than a year later would be an understatement. Cheers to all the hard work the Hi-Wire team has given their business, and their community, to rise again!
Hi-Wire brews the original version of their 10W-40 imperial stout once per year, along with a handful of periodic small batches of different, unique variants. This month, we have the pleasure of bringing you their new Maple Breakfast Coffee edition. This is a bold imperial stout, offering notes of chocolate, maple, vanilla, cinnamon, and – of course – bold coffee, supplied by Asheville’s High Noon Coffee. This deep, opaque black elixir offers a decadent aroma of roasted coffee beans with secondary chocolate notes, enriched by a warm layer of vanilla which adds a subtle dessert-like quality, augmented by additional layers of deeply roasted malts, dark caramel, bruleed brown sugar, deep earthy undertones, and a hint of dried blackberries. On the palate, this limited-run brew opens with layers of deeply roasted coffee, dark yet smooth chocolate undertones, shades of warm maple and spicy cinnamon – all supported by a rich roasted malt backbone and subtle bitterness. The vanilla infusion is warm and melds nicely with the lactose for a sweet quality that’s perfect for the coffee and other bitter elements to play off of. It’s a substantial brew, offering a luxurious, full-bodied experience, but with creamy carbonation adding lift and vigor.
NOTE: 10W-40 is packaged in 16-oz cans, so instead of two 750-ml bottles, your shipment will include four 16-oz cans.