Back in October, Mike Pallen, owner of Mikerphone Brewing, invited us to participate in their Pick of Destiny single barrel program. Pick of Destiny is their brand of single barrel-aged imperial stouts chosen by Mikerphone’s most supportive retailers.
So in early December we traveled to Elk Grove Village to visit our friends at Mikerphone Brewing to select our barrel for our 8th anniversary.
The Process
Head brewer Mike Witkowski pulled 10 different samples of barrel aged stouts for us to sample blindly, meaning we didn’t know what the base stout was, which barrel type it was aged in, or how long it was aged in the barrel.
We then wrote down our individual tasting notes and thoughts. Once we finished making our way through the 10 samples, we each selected our top 4 picks. Two of the sample beers that we all loved had a very unique dark fruit (cherry, red grape) tasting note. Mike W. then revealed the base stout, barrel type, and age length of each sample and shared with us that those two samples were both aged in Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year bourbon barrels for 15 months.
We then headed to their barrel cellar (a tight squeeze!) to find our chosen barrel and inscribe our name on the barrel!
The Name
Once the beer was picked, Mike W. pulled a sample and sent it to the lab for analysis and quality control. A few weeks later once the lab results were in, Mike P. called us to tell us the beer came back at a whopping 19.05% alcohol by volume. We were stunned!
In 2019, we released a collaboration beer with Mikerphone called Taking Back Sundae. As an homage to that name and to the band we all love so much paired with the insanely high ABV on this stout, we knew we needed to add a TOB touch to the name – Set Phasers To Stun – the name of the first track on Taking Back Sunday’s 2004 album Where You Want To Be.
About The Beer
Imperial Stout Ale Aged 15 Months in a Single Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Barrel, Picked by The Open Bottle. 19.05% ABV
Preorder and Release Details
Pick of Destiny will be exclusively available on draft at The Open Bottle during our Pre-Anniversary Party on Friday, January 27th at 5pm. We will also have a very limited amount of 500ml bottles for sale.
Preorders for 500ml bottles of Pick of Destiny: Set Phasers To Stun will also be available on our online store on Saturday, January 21st at 10am. Pickups for these preorders will start at 12pm on Sunday, January 29th at our Tinley Park location.
To Mike P., Mike W., and the rest of the Mikerphone crew for a great day of learning, sampling, hospitality…
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