Manhattan

Close friends push us to our limits. They’re the ones who dare us to be brave and go beyond our expectations. That’s why we collaborate — it draws out the best in us. And that’s why we wanted to collaborate with pFriem. We respect the hell out of everyone at pFriem for following their passions, for making such incredible blended, barrel-aged beer, and for continually innovating. 

Together with pFriem, we chose not to make beers that explode with flavor, beers that punch you in the face with over-the-top ingredient combinations. Rather, we were inspired by 4- and 5-ingredient recipes whose fame come from their simplicity, their classic flavors and now vintage charm.

Introducing Manhattan and Old Fashioned, new-age beers inspired by American heritage cocktails. 

To make Manhattan, we worked on a recipe with pFriem for a golden stout. We brewed together in Hood River but then split the batch, and what we took home to Eugene, we began to age in freshly emptied bourbon barrels. 

Because of the lighter body, this base beer was holding on to the warm and complimentary flavors in the bourbon barrels: cinnamon, caramel, vanilla and tobacco. The color was a brilliant amber-gold, very expressive of American oak, and it was reminding us of some of our favorite cocktails.

If we were really mixing a drink, this beer was our bourbon. To make a Manhattan, we still needed vermouth, bitters and a cherry to garnish. 

We brewed a fresh red rye ale with earthy bittering hops. Then we added Oregon cherries and let it meld. This was our home-made, one-of-a-kind, Alesong Manhattan mix

When this beer was ready, we set to work, testing different combinations, ratios of our collab base beer and the bitter-rye-cherry beer. What we decided on was the closest possible taste and aroma to a traditional Manhattan. 

If we can be frank: what we decided on was wild! We made a classic biere-de-coupage, a blend of well-aged beer and fresh beer that incorporates flavors of both techniques. But this biere-de-coupage was mostly aged in American bourbon barrels, and was inspired by a cocktail. To mention that pFriem made their own fresh beer to blend, and mimicked the flavors of an Old Fashioned, well, that’s to acknowledge that this project really pushed us to take historical techniques and innovate a lot — it was inspired by mixology rather than beer really, and it took almost two years to make!

But thanks to all that work and camaraderie, the subtlety and harmony of flavors in Manhattan is exactly what you would want in a cocktail. You’ll find hints of vanilla, oak, and rye spice, undertones of bitters, and just a touch — a garnish — of cherry. It’s a complex blend, well-balanced and intriguing. It is a beer that questions what beer can be.

We hope you enjoy this wonderful blend, and try pFriem’s Old Fashioned as well!

Cheers — to pFriem, to good friends, to hard work and to good beer!