Three barrel types and a batch of Sumatran vanilla beans went into Masthead Brewing Co.'s newest imperial stout. Jungle Cat, a 14.0% ABV release made in partnership with Jungle Jim's International Market, blends imperial stout aged separately in bourbon, rye whiskey, and apple brandy barrels before conditioning it on the vanilla.
Barrel-aged beer is a specialty at Masthead, whose own website points to a barrel program built on what it calls exclusively allocated whiskey barrels from top-rated distilleries. Jungle Cat pushes that further than a typical single-barrel release: blending stout aged in three distinct barrel types before adding vanilla is a way of layering in bourbon's sweetness, rye's spice, and apple brandy's fruit character all in the same glass, rather than picking just one.
Jungle Cat is available exclusively at Masthead's Cleveland taproom and at Jungle Jim's International Market.
Source & Editorial
JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.