One of the many benefits of the recent flourishing of cool small breweries in the area has been the interesting collaborations that result when they put their creative energies together. One such beer, Burial at Sea, came about when DC Brau teamed up with Baltimore’s Oliver Breweries to create an English Dark Mild Ale which was released earlier this year.
Add to that collaboration a third level: Aging that beer in barrels from various distilleries including, though the work of the staff of Jack Rose and Boubon in Adams Morgan, a special edition version of Burial at Sea aged in Bulleit Rye barrels. This aged batch of the beer was released at Bourbon this week during a special event with Mr. Tom Bulleit himself from the distillery on hand – as well as the founders of DC Brau and a festive crowd that turned out on a Wednesday night to enjoy the limited offering.
The finished product is absolutely delicious – perhaps the most-appealing new beer I have tasted in months and definitely among my favorite things put out under the DC Brau label. While there was no particular surprise in store flavor-wise – it tasted pretty as one would expect from a barrel-aged dark mild – I loved the whiskey richness and fabulous aroma, balanced to achieve a lot of impact without the heavy, wintery qualities which, while they can be great, might have been less appropriate for drinking on Bourbon’s back patio in late-April.
Everyone in my group ordered at least one and I – a person who rarely orders the same thing twice in one night at any bar – ordered a few. I just did not want to drink anything else while this limited release was still available.
