We’re super excited to have received a 2011 GOLD MEDAL at the Great American Beer Festival for SIXTEEN in the Specialty Honey Beer Category (GABF Category: 11) out of 32 entries!
2011 marks our sixteenth anniversary and what better way to celebrate than to make another very special beer? Sixteen is a dark braggot made with 1,440 pounds of honey per 40BBL batch or over 18.5 oz. per gallon!! That is truly ABSURD! It is an impressive beer. We say it for all of the Anniversary beers, but this one is going to be fun to cellar. It will be really interesting to see how this beauty changes over time. Here is some marketingese to get you salivating:
Sixteen – Caramel, crystal, munich and chocolate malts form a rich foundation for this dark and complex ale. Brewed with an absurd amount of honey from Pennsylvania bees, this braggot has a profound honey character and a nice warming finish. It is the perfect beer to celebrate our sweet sixteen.
Congratulations! Hopefully some will still be available when I make my pilgrimage to PA this summer! If it looks tight, it would be mighty nice I’d you could put aside a case for this Arizonan…
. I’ve been enjoying your anniversary brews each year, starting with Decadence!
Hank,
Unfortunately… we have sold ALL of ours to the wholesalers already…. and have nothing left to sell at this time. :^( You can check out the stores known to have such beers in your travels and hopefully you’ll get lucky!
Cheers!
Bill
Guess I’ll need to start hitting all the beer stores till I can find some. Really curious about what yeast was used. Is it a Belgium strain?
Carl,
The yeast used is our house yeast strain which is Wyeast 1272, American Ale. All of that fruitiness comes from the honey combined with the malts. CW
Love the sixteen. Put away six bottles of it and fifteen for my kids’ twenty-first birthdays. They are eleven, seven, and four. Will they still be good in sixteen and a half years?
I sure hope so! The ‘freshness’ is date is set for 5 years. All beers change with time… some better, some worse… but certainly they move away from the originally intended flavor of the style as a fresh beer. I am personally banking on it doing very well as I have a substantial inventory in my cellar as well. I suggest you sample additional bottles laid-down with them at realistic intervals so you can crack them and enjoy them before they take a serious turn for the worse. My baby will be born in February and I am starting a stash for her, too! Cheers! ~ Bill Bragg
Hey Bill!!! I too have a substantial inventory (12 cases) of Sixteen in my Cellar. I figure if I can somehow manage to practice a little self control and limit myself to 4 bottles per month (2 cases per year) it will last me six years. I had my 1st bottle back in June and I can tell that the flavor has already changed slightly. However, I honestly can’t say that it’s a bad thing because every time I drink one (or two) I say to myself “This stuff is SOOOOOO good!!! I have totally enjoyed almost every Weyerbacher Brew that I have ever had the pleasure of drinking but I must honestly say that I think this one is my favorite. At least so far. My BIGGEST challenge at this point… Keeping my wife from drinking it all on me. CHEERS BOYS!!! And Ladies too!!! By the way, tonight I had a Tango followed by a Quad, VERY nice pairing.
Ha! Awesome! Have a good one and thanks for all your support! …. and feedback!
I just spent 10 min. writing a wonderful praise of this fantastic beer, but apparently entered the wrong captcha code….the error msg. said to press ‘back’ on my browser, so I did, and it completely lost all my hard-thought words of appreciation. Please please have your webmaster fix this problem, and keep up the great brewing!
So sorry about that! We’ll look into it!
this is an incredible beer. any chance of doing it again?
Slim to none! Thanks, Nick!
[...] Weyerbacher’s anniversary beers immediately came to mind. You could have a Fourteen and a Fifteen, 4 Fifteens, 2 Fourteens and 2 Sixteens. [...]
For those of you still looking for some Sixteen, Shangy’s in Emmaus still has a case or two.
What will seventeen be??
Can you tell us what type of ale Seventeen will be? Thanks
We can’t say it yet because we are awaiting legal approval for the name, etc. We’ll announce it in our newsletter – are you on our mailing list? If not, this is the fastest / easiest way to stay connected: http://weyerbacher.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=521064eeac5045e08ce061b91&id=d896965cdd
[...] year’s anniversary beer, a dark braggot named Sixteen, won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the specialty honey beer [...]
I recognize good ones, I bought seven cases of Sixteen and I have some left in my fifth case. The next one from other four will not be opened until 2016.
wow!
Have one bottle of Sixteen put away. I looked at it today and saw a very small amount of “stuff” floating in it. Three more months to go before I can open it. Should be interesting. After all honey is a natural preservative.
[...] Cons: Alcohol Content: 10.5% ABV Calories: ??? IBU (Bitterness): ?? Rating: Brewers Website: Weyerbacher Sixteen Brewers Description: We’re super excited to have received a 2011 GOLD MEDAL at the Great American [...]