American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
(Courtesy Sierra Nevada Brewing)
The winter holiday season is ON and American craft brewers are addressing things with a festive roster of new dark beer wonders you’re gonna want to have around.
Made Of Stout Stuff (Chico, CA / Mills River, NC) – Any fine barrel-aged beer starts with the quality of the beer itself as well the casks it’s aged in and Sierra Nevada’s barrel-aged season is a perfect example. Artfully rested in bourbon barrels for almost a year, Sierra Nevada Barrel-Aged Narwhal is an 11.9% ABV Imperial Stout with big notes of oak, vanilla, and coconut layered onto a robust dark chocolate and expresso backbone.
“Our current barrel-aging program is really focused around trying to look at what happens during that long maturation period in the wood,” said Sierra Nevada Founder Ken Grossman. “A combination of oxidation through the wood, absorption of what was previously in the barrel — if it’s a bourbon, or a Scotch, or sake or wine, whatever used it as a home ahead of us — as well as the extractives from the wood.”
(Courtesy Lawson’s Finest Liquids)
Shaken Not Stirred (Waitsfield, VT) – Lawson’s Finest Liquids recently introduced a seasonal stout that began as a popular draft-only offering and is finally available in 16oz cans. Unbelievably creamy, yet uber-approachable Lawson’s Finest Nitro Stout is a 5.4% ABV Irish-style Dry Stout that’s been a taproom fav for years.
To package Nitro Stout, Lawson’s Finest doses the beer with liquid nitrogen directly into the can versus using a widget as Guinness does. Because it’s less soluble in liquid than typical CO2, nitro doesn’t dissolve in the same way, but incorporates into the beer for an extremely creamy mouthfeel and a mesmerizing cascade of tiny bubbles when poured.
A terrifiic beer!
(Courtesy Anderson Valley Brewing)
Banned In Seven States (Boonville, CA) – Anderson Valley Brewing is celebrating things with the return of something HUGE. Aged in bourbon barrels for more than 12 months, Anderson Valley Huge Arker is a massive, yet surprisingly drinkable, 15.5% ABV Imperial Stout with a hefty malt backbone, layers of honey and molasses notes and hints of coffee, vanilla and dark fruits.
###
Want more beer suggestions?
MASSIVE NEW IMPERIAL INDIA PALE ALES AND MORE
NEW BEER ALERT: LATE-SUMMER SEASONALS AND FRUIT ALES
NEW ELDERBERRY SEASONALS AND MÄRZEN LAGERS
NEW BEER ALERT: THE OCTOBERFEST BIER EDITION
