Heavy Seas Wood Aged Series, Planks in the Tanks!

Last week in their semi-regular email blast, the folks at Heavy Seas announced their wood aged series of big beers. The "Plank" series as it will be called has taken a different approach to wood aged brews. These beers won't age in wood barrels and won't have wood chunks added during the process. The tanks will be completely lined with large planks of wood. The wood planks will be treated in a variety of ways to create some unique combinations.

(image copyright Heavy Seas Beer)

The first batch is an old-style English Ale simply named "Plank I". To my knowledge this is the first production batch within the "old ale" style that Heavy Seas has put out. The wood used for this beer is yellow poplar and was toasted over charcoal to release and impart some unique flavors. Poplar is usually associated with desirable flavors or aromas so this will be an extremely different beer.

For more information on the English old ales check out BeerAdvocate.com's explanation of the style here. Some old ales that can be found on shelves now are Fuller's Vintage Ale, Founders Curmudgeon and Old Peculier from Theakston. Old ales are very similar to barley wines in color, flavor profile and alcohol content. The tend to age quite nicely.

Look for Heavy Seas Plank series to be released sometime this Summer or Fall in 22 oz. bottles and limited draft.