Conflation
Moksa Brewing Company

Black Barleywine aged 26 months in bourbon barrels with a hint of vanilla.

Conflation is a 3:1 blend of English-Style Barleywine and Imperial Stout, aged for 26 mos in a combo of Eagle Rare 10yr, Stagg Jr 8yr, and Weller 8yr bourbon barrels. Originally this was to be a straight barleywine blend, and after several rounds of tasting and blending we had arrived on three barrels which complemented each other beautifully and boasted a fantastic up-front spirit character with plenty of oak, toffee, chocolate and a hint of smoke… but the depth of flavor and lingering finish just wasn’t quiiiiite there. One of the other barrels available at the time was an imperial stout to which we had added two pounds of Brazilian vanilla beans; it had never quite developed a punchy enough bourbon character to stand on its own, but had a fantastic vanilla richness and complex finish. We trialed a blend of all four together, and instantly knew that was it. In the final blend the initial hit of flavor from the barleywine is still coming in strong, yet the vanilla and touch of extra sweetness from the stout fills out the back end perfectly. Though we generally don’t like to add extra ingredients to our barleywines, the diluted-down contribution from the fourth barrel is just enough to nudge it in the right direction without taking over.