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Beer is hands-down my beloved adult beverage of choice, but when I\u2019m not drinking beer, you\u2019ll likely find me enjoying a cocktail. During the pandemic, I got really into mixology, growing my bar in concert with my knowledge on the subject. While I enjoy all base spirits, my favorite is Cognac. I love the grape and raisin notes the brandy imparts into classic cocktails from my favorite place that isn\u2019t San Diego: New Orleans. Sazeracs, Vieux Carr\u00e9s, the French 75\u2026I love them all, but the drink I make most often at home is the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. A mixture of Cognac, lemon juice, simple syrup, Angostura bitters and another favorite of mine, Chartreuse, the drink is herbal, citrusy, woody and addictive. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not so well known here in Southern California, so when I order it and receive a shrug back from my bartender, I ask for the next best thing: a Sidecar. Which brings us to this week\u2019s featured beer, Postmodern Prometheus: The Sidecar Edition from Burning Beard Brewing. Due to the popularity of that El Cajon operation\u2019s hoppy ales and low-alcohol lagers, its barrel-aging program doesn\u2019t get the recognition it deserves, but it\u2019s one of the best in the county. The Postmodern Prometheus series, which includes high-octane imperial stouts aged in different types of barrels and rested on a wide-ranging array of flavorful adjuncts \u2013 is a testament to that. This version is aged in Cognac barrels, something of a rarity in a beer-drinking community seemingly obsessed with bourbon (I get it\u2026it\u2019s my second-favorite base spirit), and it really makes all the difference, bringing in some of that essence of dried grapes that I mentioned along with uplifting citrus notes from the addition of orange peel. As one would expect from a weighty, well-aged imperial stout, chocolate and roasted coffee notes from the beer\u2019s grain bill and vanillins extracted from the oak barrels are dominant, but that hint of the cocktail I\u2019ve come to know so well and the spirit I love the most are there, too, making for something I\u2019m looking forward to cracking a bottle of come New Year\u2019s Eve\u2026right after I enjoy a Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es, of course.<\/p>\n
This hefty imperial 13.5% (alcohol-by-volume) stout was aged in Cognac XO barrels for one year and then dosed with orange peels. Serve it at cellar temperature to maximize the Cognac-barrel and imperial-stout character. Cigar box, vanilla, toasted hazelnuts, truffle and toffee expressions present with a hint of orange to balance the roasty, dark chocolate notes of the base beer. As it warms, it\u00a0will open further to reveal cinnamon, nutmeg, tobacco, dried apricots and plums.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeff Wiederkehr, Co-owner & Head Brewer, Burning Beard Brewing<\/p>\n
Burning Beard Brewing is located at 785 Vernon Way in El Cajon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beer is hands-down my beloved adult beverage of choice, but when I\u2019m not drinking beer, you\u2019ll likely find…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[25378,1115,9377,2251,2252,55095,6568,74,76,75,55096],"class_list":["post-101216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-barrel-aged","tag-beer","tag-beer-of-the-week","tag-brandon-hernandez","tag-brewery","tag-burning-beard-brewing","tag-el-cajon","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-stout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}