10 Barrel Brewing Releases The Paxton Project

Last week 10 Barrel Brewing released its second beer in its Fancy Beer Series that is a collaboration between 10 Barrel Brewing’s Bend Innovation Brewer, Tonya Cornett and the Home Brew Chef, Sean Paxton. The resulting beer is named The Paxton Project and is a Belgian-style imperial quad that has been aging in port wine barrels four nearly four years.

The Paxton Project is a very limited release that will only see just under 50 cases of 11.8 oz. bottles available at either of Oregon’s 10 Barrel Pub locations in Portland and Bend. Only seven barrels of this beer was brewed back in November 2012, two years prior to the brewery’s sale to Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Here are more details from the brewery’s press release….

A four-year project in the making, Paxton Project was brewed, aged and bottled in 10 Barrel’s Bend brewery. The expertise and patience of both Cornett and Paxton is evident in every sip; the brew is dripping with notes of chocolate, orange and cinnamon, and has a high alcohol by volume at 16.6%. The artisanally finished bottles were hand-corked and hand-sealed with gold wax. As the second release in the Fancy Beer Series, Paxton Project was preceded by the limited Rose Bois release earlier this year.

“The layers of flavors we built into the base beer, as well as the alcohol and barrel contributions, have mellowed out over the past four years, creating a cohesive depth of flavor,” said Cornett. “Sometimes time does wonderful things.”

“We’ve been waiting patiently for the two yeasts to work their fermentation magic on all the different malts, dried fruits and sugars, then meld with the port barrel and create extra layers to make this brew standout. We’re excited to finally share the finished product,” said Paxton, a self-taught chef and food and beer writer. “This beer has so many different layers to pair food with, it was designed to go both with savory and sweet fare. For the savory side, try roasted duck breasts, grilled venison steaks or a rich prime rib to compliment the dried fruit undertones found in the beer. On the sweet side, a rich and decadent chocolate cake, a dried fruit crostata, or a steamed figgy pudding would bring out the chocolate, spice, dried fruit, and other special flavors that are layered into this unique and special brew.”

10 Barrel will release additional small-batch specialty beers later this year, including cherry and huckleberry variations of Rose Bois and a honey rye barrel-aged barley wine, among others. For additional information about 10 Barrel Brewing, visit www.10barrel.com. For more information about Sean Z. Paxton, please visit www.homebrewchef.com.