Seattle’s most prolific annual celebration of barrel-aged beers starts Thursday, December 6th at Brouwer’s Cafe.
Updated on December 3rd with the list of beers (below).
It is not uncommon to find barrel-aged beers on tap at Brouwer’s Cafe in Seattle, but once a year they fully dedicate a weekend to the stuff, with 50+ big, woody creations on tap. This year the venerable beer bar celebrates Big Wood starting on Thursday, December 6th.
The event features a variety of big, rare, adventurous, barrel-aged creations, some of which are pulled up from the bowels of the Brouwer’s beer cellar. Not just beer, but some ciders too. This is not about beers that have simply been aged on wood-chips or staves; rather, it is about beers stored and aged lovingly in real barrels. Whiskey barrels, wine barrels, or any other kind of barrels.
Serious stuff. Last year’s lineup included the likes of Anderson Valley Brewing’s Grand Cru Port Barrel-Aged Sour Blend, Wander Brewing’s Foeder Phor Oak-Fermented Strong Dark Ale, Rodenbach Alexander Foederbier with Sour Cherries, Lost Abbey Framboise de Amorosa Wine Barrel-Aged Raspberry Sour, and many more. You’ll need to keep an eye on the Facebook event to get updates about this year’s lineup, or just trust that the beer selection will knock your socks off.
The most seriously afflicted beer geeks will want to get there early on Thursday (they open at 11:00) to insure they get to taste the rarest of the rare and the best of the best. Fear not, they’ll have plenty of barrel-aged goodness to last through the weekend, so get there when you can.
Here is the list of Big Wood beers. More may be added as the event nears.
Alesmith – Mexican Speedway Tequila BA Stout w/ Mexican Coffee (12%)
Alesong – Señor Rhino Bbl-Aged Milk Stout w/ Vanilla & Chiles (12.5%)
Alvinne – Kriek Van Mortagne Sour Ale w/ Cherries (8.5%)
Aslan – Raspberry Dojo Oak-Aged Saison w/ Raspberries (6.2%)
Belching Beaver – Barrel-Aged Horchata Imperial Stout ’18(10.6%) Vista
B.F.M. – Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien Bbl-Aged Sour’17 (11%)
Block 15 – The Demon’s Farm BA Dark Farmhouse w/ Cherries ’17 (8.5%)
Boneyard – Snow Worries Cognac BA Winter Warmer (8.2%)
Breakside – #Morefriends #Morememories BA Sour (6.6%)
Brooklyn Brewery – Cloaking Device Red Wine BA Brett Porter (10.5%)
Burial – Slaughtered Fates Barrel-Aged Dark Sour Ale (9%)
Cloudburst – Cease To Amaze Bourbon Bbl-Aged Imperial Porter (9.9%)
De Garde – The Vanille Kriek Oak-Aged Wild Ale w/ Cherries & Vanilla (7%)
Deschutes – The Brett Dissident BA Flanders Brown w/Cherries & Brett(8.7%)
Dogfish Head – Bourbon Bbl-Aged Palo Santo Marron Brown Ale (13.3%)
Double Mountain – Eleven 11th Anniversary BA Barleywine (13.2%)
Elysian – Bourbon Bbl-Aged Dragonstooth Stout (11.26%)
Engine House #9 – Wild Tacoma Table Sour w/ Bing Cherries (5.9%)
Epic Brewing – Triple Barrel Big Bad Baptist w/ Bbl-Aged Coconut(11.4%)
Ex Novo – CocoGoNuts BA Stout w/ Coconut, Vanilla, & Sea Salt (10.8%)
Finnriver – Understory Cider w/ Salal Berries & Red Cedar (6.5%)
Firestone Walker – Dark & Stormy Rum BA Blend w/ Lime, Ginger(11.1%)
Fort George – Reclusa BA Stout Blend Bottleworks 19 th Anniversary (13%)
Founders Brewing – KBS Bbl-Aged Imp. Stout ’18 (12.3%)
Fremont Bourbon – Barrel-Aged Darkstar: Coffee Edition ‘17(14.5%)
Garden Path – The Subtle Blends Raspberry Barrels Sour Ale (7%)
Georgetown – 18LB Bbl-Aged Imperial Porter ’18 (9%)
Hair of the Dog/De Molen/Shiga Kogen – Side by Side BA Strong Ale(11.5%)
Harviestoun – Ola Dubh 10th Anniversary Scotch Bbl-Aged Old Ale (8%)
High Water – West Meets East Bbl-Aged Golden w/ Kiwi & Kumquat (6%)
Holy Mountain – Midnight Still w/ Turkish Coffee & Cardamom ’18 (13%)
Huyghe – Bourbon Bbl-Aged Delirium Noël (10%)
Little Beast – Black Cap Foeder-Aged Ale w/Black Cap Raspberries(8.4%)
Logsdon – Peche ‘n Brett Oak-Aged Peach Sour ‘18 (10 %)
Lost Abbey – Deliverance Strong Ale ‘15(12.5%)
Matchless – Fruitcake Bbl-Aged Old Ale (9.8%)
Modern Times – BA Devil’s Teeth w/ NOLA Coffee & Almonds Nitro (12.9%)
New Belgium – Paonia Peach Foeder-Aged Dark Sour w/ Peaches (7.3%)
North Fork – Electric Strawberryland Bbl-Aged Sour ’18 (6.9%)
Paradox Beer – Salty Melons Wine Bbl-Aged Sour w/ Watermelon (8.9%)
pFriem -Fraise Oak-Aged Lambic-Style Ale w/ Strawberries (6.4%)
Propolis – Blue Huckleberry Sangiovese BA Wild Ale (7%)
Reuben’s Brews – Bourbon Bbl-Aged Imp Stout ’18 (11.9%)
Seapine -Sky Dad Westland Bbl-Aged Imp Stout (8.5%)
Skookum -Scary Joy Bbl-Aged Imp Oatmeal Brown w/ Coconut (9.8%)
Standard – Jethro Brett Bbl-Aged Porter (9.3%)
Stoup – “Why” Cognac Puncheon-Aged Stock Ale w/ Brett (11%)
Structures – Devoid Oak-Fermented Berliner Weisse (3.4%)
The Commons – Bourbon Little Brother Heaven Hills Bbl-Aged Quad (10%)
Tilquin Mûre – Tilquin Lambic w/ Blackberries (4.8%)
Upright – Apricot Pathways Bbl-Aged Saison w/ Apricot (8%)
Varietal – When Gravity Fails Bbl-Aged RIS (10%)