Our Woodcut #4 Oak Aged Lager provides a toasted oak nose filled with dried apricot, pineapple and raisin along with a warming vanilla character in the finish. Woodcut #4 provides an exceptional base for showcasing the importance of hand selected, hand coopered, medium toast, American virgin oak barrels. By choosing a double Marzen style lager, we as brewers were able to develop a beer that showcases the caramel malty characters of a Marzen, along with the clean warming alcohol character only an 11% lager can provide. The nose of this beer is rich in complexity, providing pineapple, dried apricot, raisin and a pleasantly soft muskiness. Toasted oak overtones balance these aromas with a light cedar quality. As the warming alcohol coats the palate a soft vanilla lingers on the tongue imparted by the medium toast virgin American oak. As this lager warms in the glass, notes of caramel, raisin, brown sugar and a not-so-sweet plum emerge. By aging this beer in American virgin oak barrels at both barrel room temperatures and lagering temperatures, we were able to extract the intricacies of the oak along with the cleanness of a well-brewed lager. Woodcut #4 pours a brilliant maroon with a rich white head and prominent lacing.
For those of you living up in the north country, in the land of 10,000 lakes, we recommend pairing this complex beer with your freshly caught Walleye, lightly seasoned and grilled with bell peppers, caramelized onion and mushroom, lakefront el fresca style, with your favorite friends and family…or just nice people who love great hand crafted beer, good food, and listening to you re-tell how you caught that evenings Walleye again and again and again. And if you want to send some Walleye our way now that we are sending our Woodcut #4 your way, we wouldn’t mind!
Cheers!
A meal with friends…
Craft cooking works much like craft brewing, we do not follow a lot of the prescribed rules for style, and pilot batches are really helpful in working out the nuances before serving it up to friends. For our pairing with Woodcut No.3 Oak Aged Crimson Ale, Krystal and I wanted to do something completely different from anything we have ever cooked before, or anything we have ever thought of pairing our beer with before. This approach did require a few ‘pilot batches’ in the nights preceding our meal, but ultimately ended in a delicious 3 course pairing we were able to share with our friends Brendan, Odell Brewing Co’s Production Manager, and his wife Katie, New Belgium Brewing Co’s Quality Control Extraordinaire…
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