When Angel’s Share
Apologies for the delay in getting this one typed up. I spent this past week in DC working with our trade organization on some Government Affairs including a Hill Climb on Tuesday to meet our representatives. All told it was a fantastic week.
Today’s beer and art exploration is Angel’s Share. This was the very first barrel aged release from the wood room at Mata Way. The base beer is an English Style Barleywine which we aged for 9 months in American Brandy Barrels. It was released to much fan fare (as waiting in line for beers was starting to be a thing).
A very simple recipe of base malt, tons of dextrose and some very rich caramel malts resulted in a mahogany red streaked base beer with garnet and ruby highlights. Weighing in at over 12% ABV, the beer oozed so many layers of spun sugar, tootsie rolls and incredibly dense Fortified Wine aromatics. All told it was a symphonic explosion of boozy goodness and fruity overtones. It was a wildly successful release and to this day ranks in my top ten of barrel aged beer bottling we have done. To say the beer was stunning would be to leave praise behind. It was nearly flawless as Barleywines go.
One of the really cool part of the beer is that we were able to lock up the name Angel’s Share. It was kind of a coup. Bourbon production was just starting to get crazy and many of the greatest producers were using heritage to name their brands (Pappy Van Winkle anyone)? So fancy and unique names for Bourbon (and whiskey) were’t de rigor at the time. So we were incredibly blessed to swoop and in and gather the naming convention.
I say this because The Angel’s Share is a phenomenon that is wildly accepted in the whiskey business and the expression wildly understood. The sense of “Angel’s Share is the whiskey that is lost during the aging process to evaporation leaving the barrel through evaporation never to be recovered. As such it’s as if the Angel’s occupying the aging warehouses are taking their share for stewarding the spirits in the slumber.
During the aging process the liquor goes through some prominent changes. The first of which is significant color gain and the second is concentration of alcohol of alcohol as some of the water evaporates. Here is a photo to show the evolution.
Image from Bushmills Distillery of Angels Share in process.
It’s pretty wild to see the color gain and nearly halved reduction over the years.
The warehouses where these barrels are quite large and storied. Many of them have unique aging properties. Some are more direct sun facing. Others have a prevailing breeze and natural cooling. Others have a spiritual sense of great areas and floors that produce notably “blessed barrels.” These are known as “honey barrels” and often times they are sent to reserve projects where they can express themselves in manifested small batches.
For our artwork, I wanted to capture the essence of the warehouses in Kentucky where so much great bourbon is produced. I felt that a sprinkling of pixie dust would create a “tinker bell” like sense of mischief and show the action of Angels at work. It’s one in a long line of our beers with nominally straight forward art direction. I’ve always liked the way the label delivers on The Angel’s Share story.
Original Angel's Share Artwork by Sean Dominguez
As I mentioned earlier the first release of the beer was aged in Brandy Barrels. We next released a Bourbon Barrel version and at one point a rum barrel aged batch. There was also a Grand Cru version and 15th Anniversary release. We haven’t produced a new bottling of Angel’s Share in a few years but I am happy to state that the base beer was brewed this week and we might even have some ready for the faithful this Christmas season.
Bourbon Barrel Aged Angel’s Share bottle
