French Oak Barrel Aged Bois -- Part 5 of 5 of Our Anniversary Beers

It's the end of May, our 5th anniversary month, so we're finishing off the month of barrel blogs with a focus on the barrel industry itself and some thoughts on French American Oak! This time we went straight to the source (of barrels) and chatted with Kelvin Cooperage to learn about French oak. We just wish there was a way we could explain online how delightful Kevin McLaughlin's Scottish accent is over the phone.



Although our variation of Bois aged in French oak barrels will not be ready until late this year and it is available exclusively to our Hoarders Society members, our bourbon barrel aged Bois is available nationwide to the public right now. As we've mentioned, the rye, brandy, and new American oak barrel aged variations are available exclusively to our Society members.

New American Oak Barrel Aged Bois -- Part 4 of 5 of Our Anniversary Beers

Now in our fourth week of May, we're ready to profile yet another barrel we used to age one of our variations of Bois, our fifth anniversary ale. The rye, brandy, and new American oak variations pictured below are available exclusively to our Society members, while the bourbon barrel aged Bois is available nationwide. We turned to one of our former employees (and bloggers) to share some words about new American oak barrels. He just might know a thing or two about this subject since he moved on from The Bruery to work at Corsair Artisan Distillery. Enjoy the one and only Matt Strickland's bountiful knowledge of all things American oak!

If you think about it, wood is pretty miraculous stuff. Just take a moment to ponder all the wonderful things you can do with it. It provides shelter in the form of homes. It can be whittled into a snazzy phone case. If you have enough wood, it could be dug out into a canoe so that you can paddle downstream, get lost and therefore have to use your phone that is well protected by its wooden case. Hell, you could probably make trees from the stuff ... maybe I have that one backwards.

Brandy Barrel Aged Bois -- Part 3 of 5 of Our Anniversary Beers

By now you may have read about (and tasted?) our 2013 anniversary beer, Bois (pronounced "bwah"). This ale was brewed in the English-style Old Ale tradition using our house Belgian yeast strain and to celebrate our fifth year of creating exciting craft beers, we're aging Bois in five different kinds of barrels: bourbon, rye, brandy, new American oak, and French oak barrels. 100% bourbon barrel aged Bois is available nationwide, while rye, brandy, and new American oak are for Reserve Society members only. French oak barrel aged Bois is a Hoarders Society exclusive only which will be available later in the year.

Last week we discussed rye barrels, and before that, bourbon barrels. Today we look into the world of brandy and brandy barrels. And no, not that kind.

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!

Six Questions on Becoming a Certified Cicerone

The word Cicerone (pronounced sis-uh-rohn) has been chosen to designate those with proven expertise in selecting, acquiring and serving today’s wide range of beers ... Only those who have passed the requisite test of knowledge and tasting skill can call themselves a Cicerone. -- Cicerone.org

Tomorrow is another round of the Certified Cicerone® exam in Southern California and we look forward to supporting this organization by offering up our conference room to host the testing. Our very own Patrick Rue and Director of Marketing Benjamin Weiss are both Certified Cicerones® so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask Ben a couple questions about becoming a Cicy!