Category: Beer News

With summer’s heat (hopefully) behind us and crisp, cool mornings and brisk evenings ahead, we’re excited to share that Bundle Up, our first barleywine-style ale, is ready to make its debut! If you’ve visited our Tours & Rec Center Beer Hall or Tasting Room over the past six months, it’s highly likely you’ve tasted Bundle Up at a couple stages of development. While we often have very clear intentions when brewing our first pilot batches of a new beer, the feedback we receive from you often proves to be quite valuable when it comes to tweaking and improving beers for wide release.

Situated at the intersection of American and English barleywine, Bundle Up begins with a substantial malt base of pale malt, Cara 300, Cara 120, Amber 50 and Maris Otter. Against the sticky caramel/toffee flavors provided by the fermentables, Columbus, Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops answer with 59 IBUs of piney, spicy, resinous notes with just a touch of lingering citrus. With a finishing gravity of 7.7 Plato Bundle Up has ample (yet not cloying) sweetness to create a pleasant balance between the bitterness of the hops and specialty grains. Our comforting, warming winter barleywine finishes with suggestions of rum and raisin contributed by our house Scottish yeast strain.

Flavor Profile

Aroma – Caramel, toffee, molasses, slight chocolate notes

Malt – Rich, complex, sweet, subtle roast

Hops – Balancing, spicy/earthy

Balance – Malt

Body – Full

Characteristics

Alcohol by Volume – 10.5%

IBUs – 59

Color – 110 EBC

Food Pairings

Braised beef cheeks, $15 mac & cheese, shepherd’s pie, molasses cookies

Bundle Up Barleywine will debut starting in the Greater Kansas City Area on October 2nd (draft) and 3rd (750 ml bottles) with other regions to follow in the coming weeks. Expect to find this new Smokestack Series release in locations that typically see Smokestack Series Limited Release and seasonal beers like Saison Brett, Rye on Rye on Rye and Love Child blends.

- Jeremy Danner, Ambassador Brewer