New Beer Releases

I was looking around Argonaut Liquors on Colfax yesterday and noticed a few new beers are now available in Denver. Two that immediately stood out to me were Odell Brewing's new Bourbon Barrel Stout and Stone Brewing's latest release in their Vertical Epic series.

The Odell Bourbon Barrel Stout is the latest barrel aged beer from the brewery and if the label's description is to be believed it will be fantastic. It is a little pricey at $15/bottle, but it will also be on tap at the Boulder Beer Heat Rave on Saturday if you'd like a taste.

This limited edition offering begins with a full-bodied imperial stout that has notes of sweet milk chocolate, smooth vanilla and roasted coffee beans. Then things get interesting. We transfer it to Kentucky bourbon barrels where it’s aged for four months to let traces of oaks and caramel come forward.

Stone's Vertical Epic 09-09-09 is the most recent addition to their ongoing series each released 1 year, 1 month, and 1 day from the last. The entire series is designed to be aged until 12-12-2012 and then enjoyed in a vertical tasting, so I'd suggest picking up a few bottles to see how the flavors change. You'll want to buy some soon though as it appeared to be selling fast at Argonaut.

From Stone Brewing:

During the brewing process we added dark candi sugar, vanilla bean, and tangerine peel to complement the flavors of the porter. The vanilla bean addition is fascinating, as it actually enhances the chocolate character from the roasted malts, and the candi sugar adds a nice hint of molasses flavor to the finish. The tangerine actually turned out to be quite subtle on the finish, and combines nicely with the chocolate malt character. We aged this beer on French oak chips, which contributes a smooth and subtle woody undertone and even more vanilla flavors.