Field Recordings: Barrel Aged Imperial Stout with Vanilla and Coffee (Moersleutel Collab)

Description

Our last release saw us dip our toes for the first time into Barrel Ageing, in this release we take that further. Moersleutel [mo-ur-shlur-tel] (NL) produce some of the best stouts in the world. Decadent, complex and balanced, we’re incredibly pleased to welcome them to be our first collaborative release. Their approach to creating stouts is exactly what Field Recordings represents; time, patience and consideration.

We didn't go into this brew knowing it was going to be flavoured with coffee and vanilla. We let the beer tell us that is what it needed. We started off with an important step, putting together a good foundation to work from. Mild Ale malt takes up the bulk of the grist, providing a deep, rich and complex base to further layer with the addition of Munich, Dark Crystal, Medium Crystal, Brown, Black, Chocolate malts. This base beer was great and we could have stopped there, but after tasting, we decided to take it further and age it in Heaven Hill Bourbon, Scotch and Appleton Rum barrels. Sampling each barrell throughout its ageing, one by one, once each of the barrels character had made its mark on the beer, we moved them back into steel. Once they were all blended back together, we tasted again, analysing the beers characteristics and forming a flavour profile and eventually identifying that we wanted to bring in more coffee and vanilla flavour. We worked with Darkwoods coffee on a special sensory tasting session using our barrel aged imperial stout and their artisanal coffee blends to find the right beans to steep in the beer, selecting their Colombian Mikava blend, for its vibrant citrus acidity and caramel sweetness.

The result is full bodied Imperial Stout absolutely brimming with intensely rich flavours aromas, a beer truly made to swirl, ponder and enjoy. Chocolate, almond, sweet bourbon, cinnamon, nutmeg, creamy vanilla, red berry, candied orange, caramel, espresso, muscovado, warming roast and cherry flavours are all in abundance.

The great thing about these kinds of beers is the chance to explore your own palette, take time to drink it, let it warm and more flavours and aromas will make themselves known. Enjoy the journey.