Stingo
Watts Brewing Company

In the 1700s, the term Stingo was popular in northern England as slang for a strong ale. The term has fallen out of favor in the intervening centuries, but the beers and brewing techniques that inspired it—strong ales, hop bitterness, and wood aging—are alive and well.

This beer is the culmination of extensive trials perfecting alternative wood-aging techniques. Traditional barrel aging exposes the beer to oxygen both during transfers and from penetration through the wood itself. That oxidation leads to accelerated staling which—though less of an issue in stouts and dark beers laden with antioxidants form the roasted malt—can quickly erode the appeal of a lighter colored beer. Instead, we found that introducing the wood into the beer itself allowed us to minimize that oxygen uptake and get more control over the wood character developing in the beer. Specifying the shape, toast level, and amount of wood put into contact with beer gives us fine-grained control over which flavor and aroma characteristics transfer into the beer, and at what rate. And this process gives us access to types of wood other than the classic American oak (Quercus alba)!

Stingo takes advantage of this process to introduce both Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata) and cypress (Taxodium distichum) to an English strong ale. The base beer itself is already a complex melange of rich malt character, but the pair of wood varieties takes it to the next level. Our tasting notes include molasses, leather, toast, aromatic cedar, and yellow cake.