Barrel Aged Chestnut & Carob Imperial Brown Ale

Barrel Aged Chestnut & Carob Imperial Brown Ale 14% alc

The mountainous regions of western Greece are rich with chestnut trees, while carob trees can be found in every coastal area throughout the country!

Chestnuts are sweet and starchy with a fairly mild taste. Traditionally, they are scored and then baked over coal or covered with hot coals and ash. A few years ago, we tasted the almost-black husk right after roasting and were surprised to find it had a flavor reminiscent of roasted barley or chocolate malt!

Carobs are intense, full of tannins and phenols, with a complex profile that we have used in beer before. It gives a very distinct sweet chocolate character with a berry-like vibe.

So, about three years ago, we hand-harvested roughly 100kg of carob and 200kg of chestnuts. We roasted them in a home oven (which took many, many batches) until they were almost black to develop a dark roasted aroma and taste.

Once they were ready, we brewed a double mash Imperial Brown Ale, a style with complementary medium-roasted, bread-crust, and malty sweet flavors. We added the chestnuts and carobs to the second mash. Of course this created a stuck mash that took many hours to lauter... This resulted in the wort with the highest Plato in Greece (38 Plato). It fermented to 14% ABV, finishing with a gravity of 1.045.

We let the beer smooth out for over six months before transferring it for aging into the same bourbon barrels that had previously aged the Barleywines