I was three sips in to my inaugural glass of Square One Brewery‘s Social Devyat, a complex Russian Imperial stout, before the man who brewed it told me he was drinking it for the first time, too. I shot him an incredulous look.
“I’m surprised that there’s this interesting smokiness to it,” said Square One’s brewmaster John Witte, sounding like someone tasting someone else’s beer. The barrel had been tapped a mere 20 minutes before.
What made Witte’s revelation so startling was that Square One’s ninth anniversary party, which took place Feb. 25, was already well underway. The Devyat (Russian for “nine”) and a single keg of barrel-aged barley wine, held in reserve from last year’s shindig, were being poured and passed around the tables in the already full bar room. Now that’s confidence.
In our moment of high-concept beers (peanut butter-chocolate milk stout!), it seems risky to expend the malt and barrel space on high-gravity, unsessionable styles like barley wine and Imperial stouts. But wait until you take a sip. Aged in Square One’s J.J. Neukomm’s whiskey barrels, the Social Devyat begins with a rush of deep malt that gives way to the oakiness imparted by the cooperage. Stormy, even king-like in character, it’s not surprising this style is ascribed monarchical qualities – Russia’s Catherine the Great was such a fan she special ordered it from Britain throughout her reign.
“It’s like marrying a stout and a barley wine together,” he said. “You pick up flavors that have been impregnated into the wood.”
The more fruit-forward but slightly less distinctive barrel-aged barley wine is, at 11.2-percent ABV, the stronger beer. It’s also a collaboration between homebrewer Troy Woodburn and Witte, who called it a “pro-am beer.”
Well, perhaps I should say “was.” With such a strong turnout to raise a glass to another year of Square One’s fine brewing efforts, there isn’t likely to be much of the barley wine left. The Devyat, however, awaits you in all its fine Imperial glory. Na zdorovie.
This article appears in Guide to Beer 2015.