CBC’s Barrel-Aged “Baltic” Porter Release Date: 11 August, 2005 Colonel Albert Bacon Blanton (1881-1959) began working at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Franklin County, Kentucky, when he was sixteen. Five years later, he was President of the whiskey plant. For over fifty-five years, Col. Blanton dedicated himself to the distillery, and as a true bourbon aristocrat, developed world-class straight Kentucky bourbons (believing blends to be inferior) and occasionally produced and bottled a single-barrel bourbon. In 1984 the Buffalo Trace Distillery released Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon in his honor, the first in the world to be commercially released. Why is this at all important to a small craft brewery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, far from the hills and farms of old Kentucky? ‘Cuz we’ve got some of their barrels. The Colonel’s Porter, named in honor of the innovator, aristocrat, and visionary, is an interesting blend of Porter styles. Brewed stronger and further attenuated than our house porter (in the tradition of Northern and eastern European porters), with accents of caramel, cherries, figs, and roast malt, it has aged for over six months in fresh, second-use (the first being the bourbon) American oak barrels from the Buffalo Trace Distillery. While the contribution of whiskey flavors is slight, noticeable in a perfumed note of wildflowers and hot alcohol, the wood itself has contributed an extraordinary smoothness, with notes of vanilla and charred oak rounding out the beer’s myriad complexities. A mere two hundred gallons of The Colonel’s Porter resides now in our serving tank. How long it will last is anyone’s guess. We suggest, though, that you get around to trying it sooner rather than later. And as you raise you glass, take a moment to savor the commingling of style, flavor, aroma, and history in your glass. OG:1.064 FG:1.012 ABV:7.2%