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Release the 2012 Top Sail!

Top Sail Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Porter had been aging in oak bourbon barrels deep in the brewery’s cellar for an entire year. During those long months the bourbon barrels and time have been working their magic on our Imperial Porter.

 

Here is the brew crew extracting the Top Sail from the Kentucky bourbon whiskey casks. This year we aged the beer in barrels from Maker's Mark, Austin Nichols and Jim Beam. It's truly a labor of love.

 

 

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Wendall supervises while Jason, Gavin and Chris move a recently emptied barrel.

Wendall supervises while Jason, Gavin and Chris move a recently emptied barrel.


Wendall supervises while Jason, Gavin and Chris move a recently emptied barrel.
 We sample a little bit from each and every barrel to make sure it meets our standards.
 A Clermont Springs and Austin Nichols barrel.
 Wendall was in charge of sampling. Rough gig.
 A Maker's Mark barrel.
Brewing Supervisor Barney (brewer of the new-and-now-on-sale Extra Special Barney ESB) comes in to sample a barrel or two and offer his opinion.
 Gavin mans the hoses that extracts the beer from the barrels. They go directly into a fermentation tank from here for about a week before filteration.
 Head Honcho, Executive Brewmaster Jamie, comes in to sample a barrel.
 Just some of the Full Sail crew working on the barrels today.
 Always moving, between taking down emptied barrels, emptying others, taking down racks, opening new ones, and taking samples.
Brewers Chris and Dan (to the right) popped in to see how the work was progressing.
 An emptied barrel.
 Jason empties another barrel of bourbon aged porter.
 Angie popped down from the office to give her two cents on this year's beer.
 Stephanie did the same. They had no complaints, and thought it was a great way to kick off a Thursday work day.

Jeff Alworth of Beervana came by to check out the process that goes into our fairly labor intensive bourbon barrel aged brews.
The horizontal flight of our bourbon barrel aged imperial porter. The first three were from individual barrels and the fourth is the final blend.
 The taster trays were out all over the Pub at Wednesday's release party.
The Full Sail Crew was hustling to get the slowly-aged beer out to the anticipatory crowd.
Brewmaster Jim & Supervisor Barney spoke to a packed house about the labor of love that goes into making our famous bourbon barrel aged beers.
 We saw a lot of this that evening. Cheers to our bourbon beers!