Apis is the genus that contains every honey bee on earth, which makes it a tidy name for a beer brewed with honey. Elevation Beer Co. has been pouring Apis IV for years, and the roman numeral lines up neatly with the quadrupel on the label. The latest version spent time in American brandy barrels from Copper & Kings, and it is out now as a limited release.

The honey is local. Elevation sources it from Beekeeper's Honey Boutique in Salida, the next town over from the brewery in Poncha Springs. The barrels travelled considerably further. Copper & Kings distills in the Butchertown district of Louisville and is the only brandy producer in Kentucky, a state otherwise given over almost entirely to bourbon.

Quadrupels are the strongest of the Belgian abbey styles, dark and malty and warming, with dried-fruit character coming off the yeast. This one lands at 10.9 percent ABV. The brewery says the barrel time adds depth to a beer that was already rich, and describes the result as smooth and layered, made for slow sipping. The can is more specific about what the wood left behind: grape, oak and local honey sweetness.

That grape note is the tell. Brandy is distilled from fruit wine, most often grape, so a brandy barrel gives up fruit and a soft sweetness rather than the vanilla and char a fresh bourbon barrel would push into the beer. On something already built around honey, that is a gentler hand than the barrel treatment a quadrupel usually gets. A cheese with some age on it would sit well alongside - a hard gouda, or a blue with a little more of the same honey next to it.

Brandy Barrel Aged Apis IV is available for a limited time, on draft at the taproom and in 12 ounce cans.

Editor’s Take

Naming a honey quadrupel Apis is a nicely understated piece of work. It is the actual scientific genus of the honey bee, printed on a can covered in hexagons, getting on with the job and never once explaining itself. No exclamation mark, no pun about buzz, no bee in sunglasses. Just the Latin, and a roman numeral that happens to mean four.

Then there are the barrels. Big dark beers go into bourbon wood, because bourbon wood is what there is, and everyone has made their peace with that. Brandy is a different proposition: fruit spirit, grape sweetness, oak arriving without the vanilla dessert course. Put a honey ale in it and the beer turns up carrying two kinds of sweetness that have never shared a room before. Colorado honey, Kentucky brandy, and ten point nine percent to hold the whole thing together. Pour it small and give it an hour.

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.

Brandy Barrel Aged Apis IV Pairs Salida Honey With Kentucky Brandy

Elevation has put Apis IV, its honey quadrupel, into American brandy barrels from Copper & Kings. The honey comes from a shop one town over in Salida, and the finished beer lands at 10.9 percent.

Source & Editorial