It is a period of civil war.
Rebel brewers, striking from
nondescript former warehouses
and industrial parks, have seen erstwhile
comrades absorbed by the evil Big Beer Empire.
During the battle, formerly rebellious brewers have fought over
and managed to co-opt highly desirable spirit barrels, with plans to
deploy craft brewing’s ultimate weapon, the ADJUNCT STOUT, beer
with enough added ingredients and alcohol by volume to knock out a Rancor.
Pursued by concerns over the Empire's sinister cease-and-desist orders, breweries —
both current and former Rebels alike — race to find spirit barrels that no one will fuss over,
while others still hold controversial barrel stock that could just restore freedom to the galaxy....
Okay, maybe it’s not quite that dire, but for the last decade or so, the spirit barrel — bourbon, usually — has been one of the greater bones of contention in the craft beer world. It’s a barrel seller’s market, and some breweries, in their desperation to advance in (or just cash in on) the barrel-aged market, have been taken for a ride by unscrupulous barrel merchants. Bad barrels turn out bad beer, and right or wrong, it’s usually the brewer that takes the biggest hit.
Recently, a new wrinkle has been added to the barrel fray as successful or desirable craft breweries have been acquired by larger beer brands or investment firms. What do you do when the barrels you’ve been using for your beer are from spirits that are now owned by a competitor?
The parties to this dispute, which has more or less played out behind the curtain, are California breweries Lagunitas and Ballast Point. First shots were fired, so to speak, back in September of 2015, when Dutch mega-brewer Heineken acquired a 50% stake in Lagunitas. This was kind of a big deal in and of itself, since Tony Magee — Lagunitas’ founder and head firebrand on Twitter — had made some particularly strident public comments about other breweries accepting Big Beer Cash. The terms of the Heineken acquisition were not disclosed (nor were they when Heineken acquired the other 50% of Lagunitas in spring of 2017).
Mere weeks later, in November of 2015, Constellation Brands announced it was dropping a cool bil on Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits. Constellation owns beer brands like Corona and Pacifico, beers that I would say exist in more or less the same general market segment as Heineken, so suffice it to say Heineken and Constellation are not best buds.
Still, all this would merely be chess pieces moving on the board until October of 2016, when Constellation captured one of Lagunitas/Heineken’s more interesting pieces — High West Whiskey, whose barrels Lagunitas had been using for its aptly-named High-Westified Imperial Coffee Stout since at least 2014.
It soon became clear that Lagunitas wasn’t going to be able to use High West barrels for any beers, especially one with “High West” in the name, in the very near future — particularly once Ballast Point announced it was barrel-aging its very popular Victory at Sea adjunct stout in, you guessed it, High West barrels. Lagunitas had changed its barrel sourcing to Willett Distillery (privately held), and by August of this year had announced the impending release of Willettized Coffee Stout.
And that’s where we are today, with two very similar beers released by brewers that used to be chill Cali bros, but are now forced by corporate circumstance to play not quite as well with each other. The beers, still sought after and in somewhat limited supply, have hit Madison shelves within the last week and may still be around, so how are they?
The short answer is that they’re both good. Above average, even. They look the same, though the Willettized has more of a thick, pancake-batter head of foam and smells much more of wood and booze. Ballast Point’s Barrel-Aged Victory at Sea, with its addition of vanilla, carries that signature fragrance to the nose along with a lot more noticeable coffee aroma.
Things don’t change much on the palate, as the Lagunitas stout is hot and sharp even while its body is silkier and heftier. The coffee is almost indistinguishable until you’ve really nursed the pour and let it warm quite a bit. Victory at Sea delivers all the vanilla and coffee you’d expect from first sniff, with only a modest amount of oaky astringency.
I was a big fan of High-Westified, and don’t think Willettized is quite up to that measure. Maybe the coffee changed, or maybe they cranked it up on that booze tip just to be extra Lagunitas-y, I don’t know. But if I had to pick a favorite, and what is this column if not me picking favorites, I would drink the Ballast Point Barrel Aged Victory at Sea first. It’s distinguishable from the non-barrel aged version, but not so sharp that it becomes aggro.
The post-credits scene to this film allegory belongs to Surly Brewing, still an independent brewer, still embracing its Furious and Abrasive and Darkness-tinted attitude. Surly just released a batch of Barrel-Aged Pentagram, its dark sour which is aged for this release in not just its usual red wine barrels but also — dramatic zoom, silence from the score — High West rye whiskey barrels.
I contacted Surly and asked if they had permission, or were grandfathered in, or just how exactly they managed to still have High West barrels. The response, which came from the brewers, was: “We just do.” Smash cut to black. Gotta save some drama for the sequel.
