The Year of Magical Thinking
The first blend of 2025! We kick off a new year of stout blends with a new theme and fresh eyes on what we want to use from our wood cellar in the year ahead. As has become our unofficial tradition, our first release for the year is a classic: Kentucky Bourbon barrels and imperial stout. Even within this space, blending the most basic, iconic, and ubiquitous of barrel-aged offerings, there is still plenty of room for play.
In 2023, Finders Keepers emphasized muscular roastiness, uncommon in fashionable stouts today.
In 2024, Frostitita drew from a set of casks that prioritized oak and spirit influence over matiness.
For The Year of Magical Thinking, we turn back to some of the lingering casks from batches that contributed to Frostitita. With another year of age to them, the oldest casks in the blend have integrated more, with the express oak and spirit notes giving way to a more classic caramel and dried fruit expression.
The four batches in this blend were brewed over a five month period in early 2023. We found ourselves attracted to the casks with a familiar and welcoming Bourbon character: toffee, vanilla, honey, brown sugar.
This spirit expression melded beautifully with the chocolatey notes from our imperial porter, the complex carameliness in our black barleywine, and the rich body of our double export stout.
