Continuance
Continuance : the quality of enduring, an uninterrupted or lasting existence.
For Side Project, Continuance is a brother series to Derivation, a series of blended beers, all from our clean-barrel warehouse of Imperial Stouts, Barleywines, Adambiers and other non-sour, Spirit Barrel-Aged Beers.
Continuance was conceptualized years ago, a series of beers allowing us to showcase our blending capabilities, but focusing exclusively on non-sour, Spirit (Whiskey, Bourbon, Cognac, Sherry, Port, Rum, Brandy, and more) Barrel-Aged Beers. We also wanted an outlet to experiment with using adjuncts in something other than stouts, as you will see in Continuance Blend #2 – Single Barrel-Aged M.J.K. with Cinnamon and Vanilla.
To kick off this series and to set a standard of what to expect as we have fun challenging ourselves with these blends, we used one of our favorite beers we have ever produced – For Gabe – as a guiding light. For Gabe was a testing ground for this conception and proved to us, and many of you, as a direction that Side Project should focus on.
Continuance Blend #1 was blended over a 2-day blending session of pulling samples, enjoying bottles of For Gabe, and having fun blending “non-sour” beer in a way in which we had only enjoyed once before.
Our final blend consists of the recipes for:
- M.J.K. – a Barrel-Aged English Barleywine
- Anabasis – a Barrel-Aged American Barleywine
- Omega – a Barrel-Aged Stout brewed for Derivation and Beer : Barrel : Time blending
- Vibes – a Barrel-Aged Stout brewed for Derivation and Beer : Barrel : Time blending
- D5 – a Barrel-Aged Stout for Derivation blending
- … (ellipses) – a Barrel-Aged Stout for Derivation and Beer : Barrel : Time blending
The final ratio was:
- 45.3% Barrel-Aged Barleywine
- 54.7% Barrel-Aged Stout
As always, we blend to taste, blindly, so we are not influenced by anything other than our palates. These beers rested in their barrels of Willett 4 year Bourbon, Willett 8 year Bourbon, Buffalo Trace, BLiS Maple Bourbon and Rittenhouse Rye for 32 to 50 months.
As we release Continuance Blend #1 – a blend of Barrel-Aged Barleywines and Stouts, we also have Continuance Blend #2 resting in bottles – Single Barrel-Aged M.J.K. finished with Cinnamon and Vanilla, and Continuance TWCP – Double Barrel-Aged M.J.K. finished on a delicate addition of Vanilla for our friends at The Wine and Cheese Place. These three beers will hopefully provide you with a preview of what is to come in the Continuance series as we continue to evolve and elevate the beers we have aging in our clean warehouse.
We want to continue to thank you for your love of our niche beers from our tiny brewery as we continue to navigate these times and try to open (hopefully very soon!). This last year of pared-down operations has allotted us time to refocus and to push ourselves and our beers in new directions and Continuance is a result of that. We hope you enjoy this beer as much as we have enjoyed blending it for you.
We will be releasing this beer through our online shop for reservations on Tuesday, April 20th and allowing you 14 days to pick it up (proxies are welcome). Thank you for allowing us to share our beer with all of you from around the world through our updated website and thank you for your patience in our curbside lines and with our pick-up processes! We will follow up sometime this week with an update and actual release time for the April 20th release on Instagram.
Until then, Cheers and many thanks from the entire Side Project Team.
Cory
