Heritage Brewing Barrel Tasting
You know, every once in a while this beer blog here pays off with some exciting opportunities that most outside of a brewery rarely get to experience. Take last night, for example, when I received an invite to join the Heritage crew in checking in on some of the many barrels they have been accumulating, as well as getting an update on happenings at the Manassas, VA brewery.
To keep the post short, let’s just take a look at the next two pictures of Sean (CEO) scaling a mountain of barrels — easily double the amount that they housed about this time last year.
The first barrel we sampled from was a rye whiskey barrel that housed a scotch ale (photo below) that was darn tasty. A short time later, we followed that up with an IPA aged in a peach brandy barrel. I’m not a big brandy fan, so this one wasn’t a favorite, but it certainly showed potential. We followed those up with a tequila barrel-aged pale ale that I particularly enjoyed and can see sipping on during a warm Summer afternoon — it was light and refreshing.
The final two barrels we sampled from were both amazing. The first had previously held a number of liquors, wine and beer prior to a big scotch ale going into it’s wooden form. The result was a dynamic array of flavors too numerous to count and yet incredibly smooth. The last barrel we sampled from was the same one that I tasted about a year ago. The 22+% ABV monster only seems to get better — the brewery is also mulling over whether to release what’s left of the liquid inside so keep your fingers crossed. A portion of the barrels and more will be blended into the company’s anniversary release — be prepeared.
As far as news goes, expect a lot out of this brewery over the next two years. Expansion, collaborations, a large number of bottle released variants and more are on the horizon. I can’t wait.
