Avery Brewing Releases Pump[KY]n Bourbon Barrel-Aged Beer

19 Sep 2014 --- Avery Brewing Company will release its latest session beer. At 17.22% ABV, perhaps it’s not a “session beer” by most standards, but for a brewery releasing 6 beers that are over 16% ABV within a period of 5 months, this is right up their alley.

Pump[KY]n may be a huge beer, though Founder and CEO Adam Avery says that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to find a bunch of friends to split a bottle. “I try to just limit myself to one per drinking session. So I’d call it a sessionable beer…your session just ends quicker.”

Avery says beers of this gravity are as fun to drink as they are to make. “You can pour them into a glass and drink a different beer over the next hour as the beer warms.”

Pump[KY]n Bourbon barrel-aged pumpkin porter was spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, and aged in fresh Bourbon barrels for 6 months. “We wanted to age a pumpkin beer in Bourbon barrels because we thought the vanilla and char flavors from the barrels would meld really well with the pumpkin and spices.”

Avery’s Chief Barrel Herder Andy Parker decided to go big with the spices in this brew. “If you added this spice level to a 5% ABV beer, it’d be undrinkable. But with this beer, the high alcohol, residual sugar, specialty malts and flavors from the Bourbon barrels allowed us to get aggressive.”

When asked what is behind the unusual beer name, Avery said, “I wanted to call it Bourb[KY]n but everybody here shot it down for six months. I finally conceded because the [KY] already calls attention to the fact that it’s aged in Bourbon barrels, so ‘Bourb’ was redundant. Plus, it sounded like ‘burp’. Changing a few little letters makes all the difference.”

Pump[KY]n is the newest member of Avery’s Annual Barrel Series, which also includes Uncle Jacob’s Stout aged in Bourbon barrels, Rumpkin pumpkin ale aged in rum barrels, and Tweak coffee stout aged in Bourbon barrels. This year’s batch of Rumpkin will be released later this month, with Tweak following in November, and Uncle Jacob’s Stout being released early next year from Avery’s new brewery.

Pump[KY]n will debut on Sunday, September 21st at the Avery Tap Room in Boulder. The line party starts at 11am and will feature rare and exclusive beers on tap. Bottle sales begin at 1pm and will be sold for $12 each with no bottle limit. Avery is expanding its barrel-aging program ten-fold, which means Pump[KY]n will reach store shelves in CO, AR, AZ, CA, FL, IL, KS, MA, MI, MN, MO, NJ, NY, OK, OR, PA , TX, VA, WA, WI, WY, and of course, KY.