Avery Brewing is going wild with Brabant

Get ready for a new funky wild ale.  Avery Brewing has been experimenting once again and will be releasing their new Brabant Wild Ale this week.

The name Brabant refers to Belgian draft horses and if their new beer is as strong and wild as those horses then it should be another popular brew.   Avery's new Brabant is classified as a barrel-aged wild ale and weighs in at a hefty 8.6% ABV.  Wild as in the type of yeast that it ferments with (Brettanomyces).

Avery Brewing is becoming well known for their wild brettanomyces (or brett) beers.  Just last year, Avery won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for their experimental Avery Fifteen Anniversary Ale which used a strain of brett yeast to give it a wild and funky taste.  Now this year, Avery is going to begin putting out a series of barrel-aged beers using a similar brett strain, only this time they age their beers for up to 8 months in wooden Zinfandel wine barrels.

This beer was made in a very limited quantity and will only be available in single 12oz bottles.  This is a once only brewing of this beer and most likely this beer will be sold out quickly.

There is a growing trend amoung Colorado brewers to age their ales in wooden barrels. Last year, Odell Brewery of Fort Collins came out with the first of their Woodcut series of oak aged beers.  Other Northern Colorado brewers like Oskar Blues of Lyons and Tommyknocker Brewery of Idaho Springs have also been experimenting with wood aged beers.

If you are interested in trying this new wild ale from Avery there is an event you'll want to go to. On Wednesday, February 18th at the Avery Tap Room in Boulder, Colorado Avery will be hosting a Brabant pre-release party from 5pm to 8pm.  For one night only, visitors will be able to purchase a few single 12oz bottles of Brabant before the rest of it gets shipped off to stores.  Attending the pre-release party is the only guaranteed way to get ahold of some of this brew.