At five, Burgeon is burgeoning

The desire to explore the new flavors brought about through unique brewing and aging processes is a big part of what draws die-hard beer geeks to breweries. Burgeon Beer Company played to this exploratory urge when it chose the theme “Thirst for Adventure” for its Fifth Anniversary Invitational, which takes place at the Carlsbad brewery on January 15.

The festival’s list of 36 guest breweries features a variety of beloved local breweries — outfits such as North Park Beer Co., Pure Project, and Horus Aged Ales — alongside other guests from the Pacific Northwest. According to Burgeon Head Brewer Anthony Tallman, selecting the collaborators for the invitational was easy, “Some of the breweries are longtime friends and collaborators, some are new friends that we met during hop selection in Yakima, WA, and some are breweries we highly respect and with whom we’d like to form new friendships.”

While there are plenty of beers to choose from at the Burgeon Fifth Anniversary Invitational, it seems certain that some of the exclusive and/or limited Burgeon releases will prove to be the hottest commodities over the weekend — most notably Smolder, a fifth anniversary barrel-aged stout blend conditioned on cacao, vanilla, coffee, and cinnamon. Tallman explains, “Smolder is a blend of Imperial Stouts that were each aged up to three years in a combination of Heaven Hill and Buffalo Trace barrels, which is the most amount of time that any stout we’ve ever released to date has spent conditioning in bourbon barrels. Each beer was originally brewed in the spirit of exploration of the highest quality ingredients before smoldering against charred oak barrels to become the dynamic beer we’re humbled to share at our Fifth Anniversary.” 

Fans of barrel-aged beers will also have the chance to sample a few of Burgeon’s most popular imperial stouts from over the years. Emerging from the cellar will be: Dutchman’s Rose, a 12% blend of two stouts aged in Four Roses barrels for two years and conditioned on coffee and vanilla beans; Nightbloom, another 12% blend of two stouts aged in bourbon barrels and conditioned on hazelnuts, coffee, and vanilla; Depth Variant 1, an 11.5% stout with toasted and raw coconut, cacao nibs, and vanilla beans which is a collaboration with Moska Brewing in Rocklin; and Depth Variant 2, another 11.5% stout collaboration with Moska, conditioned on Mostra coffee and maple syrup.

Of course, Burgeon is a San Diego brewery, so the anniversary had to make room for a couple of IPAs. Tallman continues, “These two new beers include: Chief Greens, a fresh-hop IPA collaboration with Yakima Chief loaded with raw, un-kilned, flash-frozen whole cone Mosaic, Citra, and Simcoe; and Prime Five, a hazy IPA collaboration with New-Zealand based Freestyle Hops loaded with a new botanical hop blend called ‘Kohia Nelson’ that consists of equal parts Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, NZ Cascade, Wakatu, and Dried Kohia Passion Fruit.”

Although the barrel-aged stouts are available only at the Burgeon Fifth Anniversary Invitational, Chief Greens and Prime Five IPAs will be on tap for a limited time at Burgeon’s locations in Carlsbad, Escondido, and Little Italy, for those who can’t make the party.