Brewer’s Coalition Whiskey
Virginia Distillery, various expressions $49.99–$54.99
vadistillery.com
While beer is our first love, we have a similar passion for interesting and creative distilled spirits—it’s all one extended family, after all—and this series from Virginia Distillery brings them both together in a process mashup that also makes flavor sense. The conceit? Take those spirits barrels that brewers then used to age beer and bring them back to the spirits world for another round of cask maturation, post-beer.
If you’ve tasted white whiskey before it’s barreled, you’ll understand just how much character the spirit derives from that wooden vessel, and the same can be said for this series: The blenders clearly lean into the barrel character, with cask flavor profiles that complement the whiskey. The samples we tasted—finished in casks that once held Hardywood Gingerbread Stout and Central Waters Black Gold stout—each showcased smart use of blending as well as the beer flavor’s impact. The Hardywood edition amplified the cinnamon and baking spice, while the Central Waters embraced cooler chocolate tones.
The core American single-malt base provides a characterful palate—not quite as sweet as bourbon, thankfully, with grain notes that should appeal to beer lovers. Other editions in the series include contributions from Boulevard and Foothills—and, based on private conversations we’ve had with brewers we can’t name yet—we’re excited about the future projects they have coming down the pipeline.
Building new experiences and blending audiences with this kind of collaboration is great for beer and great for spirits. Now, we’ll have to put some energy into designing the perfect cocktails for these.
Beer Hiking Series
Helvetiq, $24.99
helvetiq.com
There are so far a dozen books in this series, and they cover a range of North American geographies—from New England and Quebec to Southern California. The premise is simple: Great hikes are best finished with a great beer (or two). The various authors curate a diverse selection of hikes and pair each with a beer from a local brewery, within range of the trailhead, and the fun design packs a lot of information into an easy-to-digest format. We don’t need an excuse to crack open a cold one, but these books provide just the right push to get out and explore.
Ss Brew Pump
Ss Brewtech, $249.95
SsBrewtech.com
Ss Brewtech excels at taking top-tier tech and scaling it down for homebrewers and nanobrewers, and this new pump does just that—it takes what they’ve learned producing professional brewhouses and brings that bulletproof mentality to pumps at a homebrew price point. The heavy one-piece stainless pump head is removable for cleaning, and the detail in the machining of the inner surfaces is impressive—it’s substantial, built to tight tolerances, and designed to go the distance. Stay tuned: We’ll follow up with long-term thoughts after Joe puts it to use with his own Ss Brewtech system.
