Empty Sea - Barrel Fermented Baltic Porter

Empty Sea - 8% Baltic Porter. We treated this year’s batch of Empty Sea extra special. Like previous years, we brewed it with German Pilsner and dark Munich malts, with some nice British Chocolate malt and Midnight Wheat and hopped it very appropriately. But this year we fermented the whole batch in used Cognac and Bourbon barrels with our lager yeast at cold temperatures. After fermentation we let the beer condition further in the barrels in our walkin cooler. It was a pretty fun process to manage for us, and the subtle booze and oak character from the barrel fermentation melds real nice into the beer. We’re getting notes of ethereal plum juice, chocolate liquor, scratch and sniff charred oak barrels, when you add the vanilla to the chocolate cake batter, sliced Fuji apples, and a clean dry lager finish.