Rye Barrel Aged Bois -- Part 2 of 5 of Our Anniversary Beers

Rye has the sometimes unfortunate reputation of being a kind of whiskey equivalent of Old Spice or Stetson Cologne; something cheap and rough around the edges that is best left to your grandfather - but that comparison has some value: rye is an American classic and like the aforementioned colognes it's simultaneously comforting and difficult to ignore when you're experiencing it. -- Rory Snipes

As you have seen on our Bruery Facebook page and Tasting Room Facebook page, May is our anniversary month and we are celebrating turning five years old with tons of fun stuff. We've been selling one archived beer everyday, offering up specialty flights, putting some rare kegs on draft, getting some one-time-only deliveries out into the market, and if that wasn't enough, we're releasing five variations of our anniversary ale, Bois.

Our variations of Bois that are available only to our Reserve Society members include Bois aged in rye, brandy and new American oak barrels. A special Hoarders-only variation aged in French oak barrels will be released later this year. Last week we profiled the beauty of bourbon, since our nationally distributed edition of Bois is 100% bourbon barrel aged and out in the market now. This week, we're looking at bourbon's relative, RYE!

Bourbon Barrel Aged Bois -- Part 1 of 5 of Our Anniversary Beers

Five years ago, I couldn't have fathomed what The Bruery is today. We've reached this point due to a lot of hard work, allowing creativity to steer our direction, being constructively critical of ourselves, and taking on significant risks along the way. The next five years should be just as exciting. I'm so thankful for the wonderful people I get to work with who put their heart and soul into their work, and our customers who support our brewing habit! -- Patrick Rue

May is our anniversary month and we are excited to release Bois (pronounced "Bwah!"), our fifth anniversary ale this week! This beer is brewed in the English-style Old Ale tradition using our house Belgian yeast strain and then blended using the solera method, where a portion of each of our anniversary ales is saved in our barrels and blended in with the next year's production, providing more complexity and depth of character that comes with age.

In our fifth year, we've decided that using just one kind of barrel is not enough for this beer. Five separate small batches of Bois have been quietly resting in five different kinds of barrels: bourbon, rye, brandy, new American oak, and French oak.

So what kind of differences will you see between these batches? We're studying each type of spirit and barrel for the month of May to discuss just that. For week one, we're going to look a little closer at the beautiful world of bourbon.

History of Whiskey

You can't really understand what a bourbon or whiskey barrel does for a beer if you don't know anything about whiskey.  Spend an evening watching these videos and you'll find yourself more understanding of what was going on in our oak barrels before beer went into them.

Momma, where do barrels come from?

Step 1)  Learn to fell a tree.  (don't try this without proper instruction from a certified lumberjack!)



Step 2) Learn the art of cooperage.



Step 3) Create a barrel factory where things are done a bit more efficiently.