Journeys Through the Barrel Store - Part Two

Hey folks! Hopefully you're here as a follow on from "Part 1" of our Barrel Aged blog... if not, head back to have a read of that. In part two, we're looking at one of our favourite barrel aged beers currently available, a closer look at the Maiden series and what's in store for the future.

The Current Favourite - Trubbel

Our latest barrel aged beer, Trubbel, has been a huge hit for team Siren. Trubbel is a strong and sweet Belgian Ale that we've aged in French oak Bordeaux barrels and bourbon barrels, before blending back together prior to packaging. A combination of sorts between a Belgian Dubbel and a Trippel... That may lead to Trubbel by name, but there's nothing troubling about this great beer.

When I first tried Trubbel, I was instantly taken aback by the sweet richness encompassing those classic Belgian ale flavours of candied fruits, wine tannins and vanilla biscuit. The blend of red wine to bourbon barrel was 90 - 10, so those gorgeous deep fruity wine notes really push through and personally, I love it.

On the nose you get slighty spicy hints of biscuit, but also those big fruity, berry notes, owing to those incredible old Bordeaux barrels.

Barrel Manager, Steve Hoile, commented that he loved how the wood character balanced out the sweetness, whilst the strong fruit aromas and flavours balance the alcoholic strength.

Some of the barrel-aged stuff pushes up the alcohol scales, but at just ABV: 8.5% Trubbel is a surprisingly drinkable beer. Served cool, it's a surprisingly awesome summer evening beer. Get hold of your Trubbel right here: https://www.sirencraftbrew.com/shop/index.php/special-releases/trubbel.html

Maiden Vintage Collection

This is truly exciting. As mentioned in the last blog, Maiden was the first beer ever brewed here at Siren. In this writer's humble opinion, it was quite a brave move to put the first ever brew straight into barrels. I think this set a precedent for Siren for the years of barrel ageing to come.

Siren has now reached it's 5th year of brewing and therefore Maiden its 5th vintage. To celebrate, we put together these awesome collection boxes, which include Maiden '13, '14, '15, '16 and '17 and a Siren Craft Brew glass, presented in a laser etched individually numbered wooden box. There are only ten of the glasses in existence too, and true to form, the boxes are hand-made especially for this set.

As you can imagine, to get all 5 vintages of Maiden in on collection is both very special and quite rare. Indeed, we have only 10 of these box sets available. There is very little of the vintage Maiden left so we don't envisage this opportunity coming up again.

On July 14th, here at the Siren Tap Yard, we are celebrating Sessions & Sours. The Maiden Vintage Collections will be available for public purchase then. We’ll be taking a pre-registration from those interested and pick the lucky buyers at random.

These are truly a slice of beer history.

Before that, on the 14th June, we have a Maiden Tasting (hosted by Steve Hoile) followed by a barrel aged bottle share here at the Tap Yard. Why not come along, try all 5 maidens and then join other local beer fans to chat about and try your favourite barrel aged beers. Plus you'll see our new set in the flesh!

Odyssey 009

So what about the future? Well, bearing in mind we have over 350 barrels... probably quite a lot. It's difficult to say what's on the distant horizons but I can tell you about something that's already made it's way out of barrels.

Yep, the follow up to award winning Odyssey 008. Now, if you've not really heard of the Odyssey series before then you may be thinking that this is a follow on, or a tweak, or a version of Odyssey 008. In truth, our Odyssey series is a constant experimentation of styles and barrels. Where Odyssey oo8 was a barrel aged sour, 009 is made up from 80% Stout and 20% Saison, giving it a rich and dark profile with a hint of zing on the palette. Now, before you get excited, this run of Odyssey 009 is extremely limited. After coming out the barrels, we added some locally roasted coffee to make it a small added bonus feature of this year's Project Barista range. 1 keg went into the Tap Yard and a couple of others to selected bars. Odyssey 009 should see life outside the barrel properly sometime in the coming months. Aside from that, who knows what wonders lie within those barrels? Well, Steve does, and he's keeping tight lipped about it for now... watch this space!

So that's it for now for a short journey through our barrel store. No doubt we'll be back with more barrel stuff at some point, so keep an eye on the blog, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Tell us your favourite barrel aged beers, or anything you'd like to see us try over on social media. Cheers for now!