Black Swan Barrel-Aged Dark Ale

$39.00

Black Swan Barrel-Aged Dark Ale is a dark amber, rich, smooth, nutty, strong ale that has been aged for 12 months in French oak wine barrels that previously held New Zealand Whisky Co’s Double-Wood Whisky for many years. Only 1593 bottles were produced and each one is hand-numbered.

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About This Beer

Black Swan Barrel-Aged Dark Ale is a dark amber, rich, smooth, nutty, strong Belgian-style ale that has been aged for 12 months in French oak wine barrels. These barrels previously held New Zealand Whisky Co’s Double-Wood Whisky for many years.

The beer pours very dark with a light tan head and delights the nose with malt, treacle, dried cherry and sweet apple. It tastes of burnt sugars, coffee, chocolate, and dried fruits with a subtle blend of Belgian and English yeasts, with a rich and malty finish that tails away with hints of single malt whisky, port, and oak.

Black Swan Barrel-Aged Dark Ale will cellar gracefully for many years, but is fabulous right now. Do not serve cold! Treat it like you would a port or red wine and serve it in an elegant glass. The label features black swans, which are found in New Zealand and Australia. Only 1593 bottles were produced and each one is hand-numbered.

Want to try more than one variety? Choose 3 different barrel-aged beers!

Beer Details

Barrel-Aged
Barrel-Aged
11.5% ABV
50 IBU

Ingredients: Water, NZ Barley, NZ Hops, Yeast. Black Swan started out as Sweet Bippy in 2017 for our GABS Festival beer. We reserved a portion of the beer and aged it for 12 months in whisky casks.

Brewers Notes

Kereru obtained 140 unique oak barrels from the NZ Whisky Collection, a company founded around the stock of the former Wilson's Distillery in NZ. The stock was lost for many years and was then found and the whisky had aged to perfection. Some of the casks were 60 year-old American oak ex-bourbon barrels which contributed vanilla, oak and hints of maple to the whisky. Some of casks were French and American oak ex-red wine barrels from Mills Reef which contributed red wine and port notes to the whisky. The casks arrived in small lots as they were decanted of whisky, and were wet and sloshing with a bit of magical spirits still inside. Each cask can impart its whisky character into a beer only once. After that the cask can be used again, but will only offer oak barrel character. This makes all our whisky barrel-aged beers unique and never to be repeated. Each bottle is hand numbered.

Food Matching

Cheese: blue, aged gouda, sharp aged cheddar

Mains: risotto, mu-shu pork, beef Wellington, venison, lamb

Dessert: fresh figs, fruit cake, steamed pudding