A Sweater for an Octopus
A Sweater for an Octopus, our fifth blended barrel-aged stout release of the year and one of our two Black Friday debuts, veers into some uncharted territory for us. It’s the first time we have used tea as an adjunct for one of our barrel-aged stouts. We came by the tea addition honestly: we had settled on a 12 cask blend that we found cohesive and very pleasant, but we feit that the beer needed something more. We wanted to play up some of the jammy, blackberry notes that we found especially unique in the blend, and we also wanted to bring in a little more structure, like tannin or oak or bitterness or roast, to the finish.
The challenge was that we couldn’t find another cask to accomplish that for us without altering the overall character of the blend too much. That’s when we turned to the idea of tea. Rooibos would accentuate the berry notes, and a skosh of black tea would add a little depth of earthiness and tannin to the beer. After a few rounds of benchtop trials with different teas, we settled on two single-origin teas from Smith Teamaker.
As always, the adjunct ingredients– the tea, that is– dovetail with the rest of the beer rather than dominate it. Enjoy this beer, and seek out the unique attributes that those teas are adding. Frankly, we hope that finding where the barrel and beer flavors end and the tea begins makes for a good challenge.
BERRY, OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIE, OAK TANNIN
- Availability Limited Release December 2024
- IBU 20
- ABV 13.9
- Packaging 22oz,Kegs
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