It’s hard to believe it’s been 2 years since our one and only release of The 12th Labor. That wasn’t really the intention, but some things take time. The upcoming release is blended from a couple batches brewed December 2015 that spent 16 months in assorted bourbon barrels. From these barrels we’ve already blended Abandon All Hope and Ye Who Enter Here, but for The 12th Labor we wanted to reserve the *best barrels and give them extra time. There’s nothing added to the stout except for the barrel, so in a world obsessed with adjuncts in stouts, we needed the base beer to stand on its own.

The resulting beer is decadent and pillowy, with rich, sweet chocolate flavors that are just barely restrained by some bitterness and a touch of smoke. We think it was worth the wait.

*We shot this fun video with our good friend Ale Sharpton in which we tasted a couple barrels before blending. We were pulling samples beforehand, but I hadn’t actually tasted them before shooting. The one that he describes as being like red wine didn’t actually make the blend, but I expect to be a great part of the blend of our old ale that’s been aging in barrels for almost 2 years.