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From our cellar: Two imperial coffee porters
Jess Suworoff for DRAFT OK, we’re a bit late on the spring cleaning. It’s nearly time for kolsches, wheat beers and goses, but not before we say a quick goodbye to porters and stouts. April is a great...
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Out of the cellar: 2012 Dock Street Brewing Super Saison
Photo by Jess Suworoff for DRAFT Saisons aren’t the first style you’d think to cellar. But among our shelves of lambics and barrel-aged imperial stouts, we’ve stashed a few bottles of the higher-ABV...
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Cellar this: Belgian-style sours
Some beers are better with age. Here, time yields a full bloom of flavors from two Belgian-style sours. BRING OUT: Karl Strauss 24th Annivesary Flanders-Style Ale The San Diego brewery released this...
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Cellar this: European imports with New World twists
Some beers are better with age. Here’s one to crack now, and one to sock away: BRING OUT: 2009 De Proef Van Twee Belgian Ale The Belgian brewery collaborated with Bells on this hybrid ale, which...
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From our cellar: Arbor Brewing Framboozled 2012
Photo by Jess Suworoff for DRAFT In the heat of the summer, it may not occur to you (sometimes I myself need prodding) to swing open the cellar doors and pluck an aged beer to enjoy. Naturally, much of...
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From our cellar: American-made Belgians
Bring Out: Pelican Le Pelican Brun 2007 Eight years is a long slumber for most beers, but this hybrid Belgian ale (somewhere between a dubbel and a Belgian strong dark ale) more than stood the test of...
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From our cellar: Capital Brewery Garten Bräu Munich Dark
It’s the heart of the Oktoberfest season, and the spotlight is shining brightly on Märzen lagers in the U.S. and festbiers in Munich. However, another German style, the dunkel, is a nice companion for...
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From our cellar: Against the Grain Bo & Luke
Photo by Jess Suworoff for DRAFT Magazine In my youth, I spent many Friday evenings figuratively glued to the TV set, enthralled by the Duke cousins’ exploits as they tore along the Georgia back roads...
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From our cellar: 2013 Breckenridge Stranahan’s Well Built ESB
Photo by Jess Suworoff for DRAFT An extra special bitter is not the first style you’d pick for barrel aging, but in 2013, Breckenridge Brewery bucked tradition and delivered an ESB that rested for...
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Lay it down: 2015 The Bruery Black Tuesday
Photo by Jess Suworoff for DRAFT If you’re among the lucky folks selected in The Bruery’s lottery this week for the annual Black Tuesday release (or you’re in one of the brewery’s membership...
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From our cellar: 2009 Firestone Walker 13th Anniversary
You’ll see Firestone Walker’s XIX, the latest blend of strong ales the brewery releases to celebrate its anniversary each year, trickling into stores now. We decided to rustle one up from our cellar,...
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From our cellar: Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti 2013
Bring Out Great Divide Oatmeal Yeti 2013 Just two years in the cellar already yield hints of aging from aroma to sip. A substantial light brown head caps the inky pour, emitting a light milk...
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From our cellar: 2013 Sun King Bourbon Barrel Johan
Drinking a canned barleywine, let alone setting one down to age, is rare today and was even more of an anomaly in 2013: We cracked open this can of Sun King Bourbon Barrel Johan from January of that...
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From the cellar: 2013 Airways Final Departure
With the end of the year approaching, we figured it was time to open a 2013 bottle of Airways Brewing Co. Final Departure. After all, the label for the imperial stout—first brewed in 2012 due to the...
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Southern Prohibition Ragana Baltic porter face-off: standard vs. bourbon...
When Hattiesburg, Mississippi’s Southern Prohibition Brewing released Ragana Baltic porter, its winter seasonal, in cans this year, it jogged my memory: “Don’t we have a bottle of this in our cellar?”...
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Deschutes Abyss Cognac and Rye Editions: Drink now or lay down?
Arguments over how long a beer should age are one of the main causes of strife here at the DRAFT offices (that and whether yetis actually exist, but that’s a topic for another blog post). Thank...
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From our cellar: Jacob Leinenkugel Big Eddy Rye Barrel-aged 2011
Bring Out Jacob Leinenkugel Big Eddy Rye Barrel-aged 2011 More than four years of rest hasn’t mitigated the aroma’s rye whiskey spiciness, but the cellar time has tempered the imperial stout’s alcohol...
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From the cellar: Jackie O’s Bourbon Barrel Dark Apparition 2014
First brewed in 2010, Bourbon Barrel Dark Apparition—a brown sugar-spiced, barrel-aged imperial stout made by Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery—is a perma-want on the lists of many a beer geek. The Athens,...
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This is what six-year-old Hopslam tastes like
Laura Bell does not recommend aging Hopslam. She’s pretty opposed to the whole idea, actually. In a conversation earlier this week, the vice president of Bell’s Brewery and daughter of founder Larry...
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From our cellar: Duvel Moortgat Maredsous 8 Brune 2011
Bring Out Duvel Moortgat Maredsous 8 Brune 2011 More than four years of rest for this Belgian dubbel have created a reserved bouquet of funky dried fruit (prune, raisin, cherry), light brown sugar and...
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