San Diego’s Green Flash Brewing Co. will soon debut some new, rare brews: limited edition, barrel-aged concoctions.
According to Green Flash, the experimental series of brews are part of a new line dubbed Barrelmaster’s Reserve. At least one of the new beers will debut next month at the company’s Cellar 3 tasting room in Poway.
The beers, created by Barrelmaster Pat Korn, who oversees operations at Cellar 3, have a 13.1% ABV.
The brews are unique in that they are one-off projects from Korn, meant to be produced in very small quantities – between 600 and 1,800 bottles per release, Green Flash said.
The sudsy creations will be bottled "when they are ready," with, essentially, no real drop date. Korn will make the final calls on what to bottle and when to bottle.
“This sort of spontaneity allows room for Pat and his team to experiment with process and barrels used, and to take as much or as little time as needed to produce the most exceptional results,” the brewing company said in a press release.
Once ready, Green Flash said each beer in the barrel-aged series will be available for one day only exclusively in at the Cellar 3 tasting room. The brews will be sold in bottles and possible on draft in small quantities.
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It’s a first come, first serve deal.
The company said a small amount of the beers will be available for special occasions as well, and at select retailers nationwide, but exact details were not disclosed.
Green Flash CEO Mike Hinkley said this series of suds will give Korn and the team at Cellar 3 “the opportunity to enjoy the organic and unpredictable process of barrel-aged experimentation.”
Hinkley said that since Green Flash has grown into a national brand, the company rarely has the opportunity to create these kinds of limited beer offerings in small batches, or via "micro releases" of this sort.
“With the Barrelmaster's Reserve series we have carved out a place at Cellar 3 where we can produce top-shelf, experimental offerings with bottles that are exclusively available at the facility in Poway," he added.
The debut beer in the series is called "Lustrous Frumento With Coffee," a 100 percent bourbon barrel-aged black ale boasting rich, malty, double stout base. The beer is matured in freshly-emptied Old Forrester bourbon barrels and rests in the barrels for 30 months before bottling.
During that time, the brew gains notes of spicy oak, vanilla and caramel. A cold brew coffee made from a blend of Brazilian and Sumatran beans from San Diego-based coffee roaster Mostra is added to the mix to compliment the rich flavor of the brew, the company said.
Lustrous Frumento With Coffee will be available on May 21 at Cellar 3. It will come packaged in a 750ml cork-finished bottle. Each bottle is $24 and, for now, there is a strict two-bottle limit per customer.
Korn and his crew expect to release several other brews in this Barrelmaster's Reserve series this year, but details on each one of those projects will not be released until the beers are ready.
After all, you can't rush a solid brew. Cheers.
