Central Waters - Headless Heron Barrel-Aged Pumpkin Spice Ale

Nice, will purchase.

Not to threadjack, but I had a question on Lakefront's Brandy Barrel-Aged Imperial Pumpkin Ale as well. Is this the same as the 25th anny beer they released last year?

Figured we could talk about that beer as well since it's also a WI BA pumpkin.

 

Not sure if it is the same, it is a bit heavier with the alcohol IMO than what I remember from the 25th Anniversary beer, but it's still very delicious. Definitely worth picking up a 4-pack at least.

 

per the Lakefront beer- it is the same base beer, but seems to have picked up an extra point in the barrels this year. That'll happen sometimes with BA beers.

per Central Waters- this will be a nice beer. Just had the latest batch of Call Me Old Fashioned w/ bitters added last night. It was delicious. They're doing a great job focusing on barrel-aging.

 

Nice! You went to the dinner last night? I wanted to go, but the baby octopus on the menu was a little too extreme for me.
Somebody on Twitter posted a picture of beer pong with 16, at what looked like the restaurant. What's up with that, haha?

 

I'm looking forward to this. Hopefully the BA Space Ghost will still be rolled out this fall too.

 

Yeah- dinner was great. The octopus was prepared and presented gently- usually restaurants will just throw the whole thing, head and all, on the grill. Rumpus sectioned off the legs for us. I enjoyed it more than the brain and monkfish that was served last year

There was a beer pong table set up, but I don't think the cups actually had 16 in them. Pretty sure we all did a good job killing bottles, can't imagine there was enough left for pong.

Overall the dinner was great. A little same of a Prearis Quad to start, would definitely pick that up if you see a bottle. Food-wise, the pork chop was probably the highlight. Really prepared well and paired perfectly with fresh Octoberfest. I guess fall is here!

Beer-wise, Old Fashioned was the most unique. Anello pointed out that they didn't get as much cherry and orange peel as they would have liked. Basically, it's an Imperial Red Ale w/ orange peel that is aged in Korbel Brandy barrels w/ cherries for a year. Then, a few drops of bitters were added to each serving. They can't add bitters to it when the bottle for legal reasons, so they'll keep playing around with fruit and spices in the recipe to imitate bitters. It clocked in at about 10%, lots of brandy, nice malt balance, just a touch of cherry & orange. Paired well with warm bacon dressing on a spinach salad. As he stated at the dinner, the course was a nod to Northern Wisconsin's supper club traditions. I would imagine that this beer will be bottled sometime in the next two years once they nail the flavors they want.

Sixteen was phenomenal (duh) and worked well with the flour-less chocolate cake. Would have liked a bit more pepper in the sauce, I think that could have been interesting with Sixteen. I've been wanting to make a flour-less Mexican chocolate cake at home anyhow, so I'll try that pairing myself.

All-in-all it was a tremendous dinner. Nitro Hop Rise was a bit of a let down, I still feel like Central Waters hasn't yet nailed an IPA (Lac du Bay is my favorite IPA/APA from them, but would have been a touch malty for pairing with the octopus). But I get the sense that they aren't focusing on hops right now, which is just fine.

Anello announced that they are more than doubling their BA program over the next year or two, and that it takes them 2-4 years to nail a BA beer. I would wager that CW regulars will get to taste a lot of these beers before their ever released in bottles. Also, they're brewing a Dubbel with Prearis today, def looking forward to that one hitting as we start getting into the colder months.

I forgot to ask about plans for the 17 beer, and also did not ask about BA Space Ghost...

 

When I talked to a guy from CW at Sugar Maple a few months back, he mentioned the same info about the legal issues and that they might offer it with 3 bottles of the beer and then one small bottle of bitters. I'm sure the challenge of securing all of that would be tough, but interesting nonetheless. Hopefully that brew keeps popping up randomly because I'd love to finally try it.

Looking forward to the growth of their BA program, and I REALLY hope they figure out Peruvian Morning. I haven't ever come across an infected bottle and that brew is so damn delicious.

 

I definitely had an infected bottle earlier this year- just a touch of tartness, but it reminded me of the berry-flavors that some coffees have. I believe that was their only BA beer w/coffee, right?

It certainly sounds like they've moved on from PM, at least for now.

 

Anyone have any information when Headless Heron will hit distro? Couple weeks?

 

Hadn't heard a thing about it until this post. Be forwarned- CW distribution for BA beers and bombers has been all over the map this year. I know of folks in NY who were able to buy BA Scotch a month before it made it to Madison.

 

Does the world really need another pumpkin beer?

 

No, but we need a Rye BA Chocolate Oatmeal Porter...

 

At least breweries are starting to get more creative. Almanac's Heirloom Pumpkin BW sounds great, Lakefront's Brandy-Barrel Aged Imperial is great, and I am looking forward to trying this one. Haven't had a Bourbon BA Pumpkin beer before.

Also, credit CW and NG for putting their pumpkin beers out at a more appropriate time than everybody else.

 

You didn't have Point Whole Hog BA Pumpkin last year?

 

Put perfume on a pig and it's still a pig. I had a DFH Punkin a cpl night ago and I can honestly say that given the choice of that or a Miller light, I'd take the light.

I know many people like them, but ACK!

 

What's the reported ABV% for this beer?

 

Holy shit.

 

Meh. Paying attention to details and designing a beer correctly goes a long ways. A lot of pumpkin beers are spice bombs or sugar bombs, which gives that style a bad name. There are a couple ways to make a great one, and a million ways to make a terrible one.

The Lakefront one is great because it's not sweet and has the extra kick of brandy.
Whole Hog pumpkin is a liquid pumpkin pie with subtle sweetness.
Pumking has enough booze in it to keep everything under control.

I didn't like most of the pumpkin beers I've tried, but when something unique comes along, I'll certainly give it the college try.