Brooklyn Cuvée La Boîte

[Lizard King]

So I had about 3 of these last weekend, I kept trying to go to something else but this was so damn complex and tasty and I don't think I would have found it anywhere else. A collaberation between Brooklyn Brewery and the a spice shop in Hell's Kitchen NYC.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45/98565

It was a Belgian strong ale nice and smooth but the flavors were so crisp and kept developing with every sip. If you see it GET IT!

Garrett Oliver is the brewmaster who gave us bacon beer, so when Brooklyn Brewery releases a new limited-offer, draft-only concoction (as it does every three or four months) we get excited.

We like to imagine Oliver holed up in a windowless laboratory in Williamsburg, surrounded by spices from India and barley from Newfoundland, furiously scribbling chemical equations on a dry-erase board. But he got some help for this latest installment of the Brewmaster’s Reserve series. Cuvée La Boîte is a collaboration with Lior Lev Sercarz, the self-styled “spice whisperer” and proprietor of La Boîte Biscuits & Spices, in Hell’s Kitchen.

According to Oliver, this one is a “round, soft beer” brewed in the Belgian “grand cru” (i.e. high-end) style — using 60% barley malt and 40% raw winter wheat, as well as honeyed fruit and fresh kaffir lime leaves. Sercarz’s MishMash #33 spice (a blend of lemon, saffron, and crystallized honey) is added into the kettle for an “earthy, sandalwood character,” Oliver tells us. A touch of Espelette peppers, a rare dried red pepper from the eponymous commune in southwest France, adds a spiciness to the brew’s finish, which “builds a warm glow as you drink the beer,” Oliver says.

And let’s face it, a warm glow is pretty much all we ask of a beer. Look for Cuvée La Boîte at select bars and restaurants by the end of the month.

 

[PillarofBalance]

I'm on the lookout for this one!