Allagash Brewing Company is releasing its first non-wild, blended, barrel-aged beer. Pastiche, a limited release, will ship to the brewery’s full distribution footprint. The beer is available in 750-ml. bottles and on draft at select locations.
Pastiche starts out as four different beers. Made with various local malts, these beers were brewed specifically to blend well together after a brief stay in barrels.
Barrels included in the aging process were: rye whiskey, vermouth, port, rum, bourbon, red wine, gin, and brandy. After aging the beers between three and four months, the brewers got together and blended them all into a single, unified whole.
In flavor, Pastiche is an amber beer with notes of caramel, dried fruit, spirits and oak, the company says.
“We’ve been wanting to experiment with blending non-wild, spirit-aged beers for a long time,” explains Zach Bodah, head of Allagash’s quality control team. “Since each [of the four] base beer[s] in Pastiche was split and aged into at least two varieties of spirit barrels, it was a terrific logistical challenge in cellar management. We’re really happy with how all that hard work turned out.”
