We dedicate our most recent blended stout to our friend Marco Malaga, brewmaster at both 7 VIdas in Peru and at Argentina’s Okcidenta. Marco is the best brewer in the world that you’ve (probably) not heard of, a master of classic and contemporary styles, and producer of some of the most imaginative and flavor-bending barrel-aged strong beers we’ve ever tasted. Marco’s Malbec barrel-aged beers in particular were a revelation for us– stouts and barleywines aged for years-too-long in barrels, like fine vinegars, perfumed with the jammy, tannic, and tart notes of robust red wine. They are beguiling, inspiring, muscular beers.

A Spectacle To Be Consumed is a blend focused on stouts aged in red wine barrels in tribute to the ones that Marco makes. We combined casks from six different beer streams, all aged between 29 and 32 months in these barrels. Unlike the character from Malbec, the wines in these barrels was less berry forward and showed notes of some of California’s juicier and lighter varietals — Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Petite Syrah, Merlot. The grape notes presented jammy and plummy, with notes of cherry and hibiscus. Beyond the wine aromas, these casks left us a treasure trove of malt and oak artifacts– cacao, nuts, light toast, lignin, and caramel that often get washed away from aging in liquor and spirit casks.

To add depth to the blend and round it out, we added a small amount of stout aged in Bourbon, nocino, and amaretto barrels. We worked carefully to not allow these characterful spirits and amari overpower the wine aromatics. Instead they served to add flavor hooks. Hints of walnut, almond, apricot, and vanilla. A kiss of 3 year-old old ale — our ‘ ice barleywine’ — brought additional caramel and smooth alcohol warmth to the blend.
Cheers to our friend Marco whose work inspires our imagination!