Rare Beer Roundup: AleSmith, Bottleworks XV, Funky Buddha + More

Just when you think March might turn out to be a bit of a slower month for beer releases, breweries start coming out of the woodwork with more beer than you can even begin to handle. Barrel-aged this, brett-fermented that, muscat grapes, maple syrup, apple brandy, tequila and more – get double dry-hopped and let’s do it.

AleSmith continues to pummel our palates (and bank accounts) with new treatments of their flagship Speedway Stout, with the latest varietal dropping earlier this month. For this go round, the San Diego brewing outfit landed some prized Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee with the help of a local roasting company. After roasting and cold brewing, Jamaica Blue Mountain Speedway Stout was born and offered up for online reservations via Brown Paper Tickets along with another batch of their Barrel-Aged Wee Heavy. For those of you who despise line cutting, line waiting or just lining up for anything in general, AleSmith’s online presales continue to go off without much of a hitch.

Seattle’s Bottleworks, one of the original and most recognizable craft beer bottle shops in the country, celebrated their 15^th anniversary in March with yet another commemorative ale brewed for an exclusive bottle release. The Lost Abbey performed the honors this year, brewing up a Belgian Strong Ale aged in tequila barrels, which was available to event attendees at $20 a pop with a 2 per person limit. Previous releases in the Bottleworks Anniversary series have included Hair of the Dog Bottleworks X (which became Matt) and Russian River Deviation (the mythical beast), followed by beers from The Bruery, Cascade, Stone and more.

After hundreds of people stampeded into Funky Buddha for the Maple Bacon Coffee Porter release in January, the brewery announced another limited bottle for this month. The decadent, popular and always tasty Nib Smuggler chocolate milk porter (seriously, it’s like Hershey’s) was bottled up and ready to roll for the ever-thirsty Southern Florida beer-drinking community. 700 bottles were gobbled up in no time, leaving everyone asking “so what’s next??” I’m hoping for some of those ultra vibrant fruited Berliner Weisses, Last Snow or No Crusts.

Firestone Walker – you know them, you (probably) love them. The California barrel-aging crew blasted people with a double release this month, launching their first ever bottled sour ale, Feral One, alongside the 2014 batch of everyone’s favorite shelf –bal, Parabola. Feral One (blend of 4 barrel-aged wild ales) appears to be the first of many beers coming out of the brewery’s Barrelworks project, as they’ve already announced the follow-up release to be Lil’ Opal. Look for this farmhouse ale aged in a combination of American and French oak barrels to debut at Bottleworks on April 19. Distribution for Parabola has already begun, so check in with your local shop to see if you’ll be getting your hands on this wonderfully executed bourbon barrel imperial stout in 2014.

To the Midwest we go next, for another fascinating ale created by Cory King of Side Project Brewing. When he’s not holding down the fort at Perennial Artisan Ales, this guy is barrel-aging and fermenting all sorts of unique beers, including Saison de Rouge. This red saison was fermented in Chambourcin barrels for 5 months with brett and dry-hopped with Mosaic, Simcoe and Citra…yowzer. With the St. Louis faithful showing up in droves, bottles were sold through quickly (limit 4 per person), however this is still just the beginning for Side Project. Other beers coming down the pipeline include Black and Wild, a black wild ale aged in rye whiskey barrels with cherries as well as a single barrel bottling of Saison de Fermier.

Looking to get a bottle from Sante Adairius Rustic Ales? Of course you are. If you’ve been paying close attention to their Facebook account, you might notice the photos of their chalkboard menu changing from time to time, occasionally with a tiny note about their latest barrel-aged, wild or otherwise mouth-watering creation. A tart imperial stout aged in rum barrels known as Professor Ron was the latest one to debut, restricted tightly with a single bottle limit per person (as most of them are now). Many of their beers are only available to-go for an extremely short period of time, quickly becoming in-house only offerings before being removed from the menu altogether. Keep your eyes peeled, call a friend in Northern Cali or make a trip out to get in on the action.

Mount Pleasant, SC is home to the one and only Westbrook Brewing Company, makers of the intrepid Mexican Cake imperial stout, as well as a canned Gose that’s perfect for quenching your warm weather thirst. A weekday afternoon social media blast announcing two barrel-aged versions of Siberian Black Magic Panther sent people scrambling to the brewery and message boards as seemingly everyone wanted a piece of this one. After spending two years in either bourbon or apple brandy barrels, this luscious stout will be dotting people’s wants lists all over the country.

Nick Alfonse is a writer living in the Philadelphia area. Follow him on Twitter @BeerServedRare.