I will most likely have a lot more to say about this event as it gets closer, but I wanted to let you know some of the details as soon as they have become public.  If you missed it last year, I think at this point you know that you can’t do that again – Braxton is throwing their second annual Winter Block Party at their Covington taproom on Saturday, December 3rd.  The skinny of it is this: It’s a party designed to celebrate their friends, their customers, barrels, beer, all the things that they love basically.  It’s a massive event with a TON of great beer – more on that in a minute, first let’s talk Dark Charge!

All The Dark ChargesThis Year’s Dark Charge

As much as the winter block party is a big party – it’s really about one thing for those of us Imperial Stout fans, Dark Charge Day.  It’s a big beer, aged for an entire year in Bourbon barrels – resulting in a dark elixir full of stone fruits, chocolate, coffee, oak, roasted malts, and umami.  Most of the variants clock in at 13.3% abv, so make sure you bring your DD. It’s worth the trip down to the brewery just to snag that one bottle and try it on draft, but of course in Braxton fashion, they aren’t stopping with that one bottle.

There’s variants.  Actually, there are a bunch of variants.

  • Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Charge
  • Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Charge with Madagascar Vanilla Beans
  • Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Charge with Starter Coffee
  • Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Charge with Toasted Coconut (this one is the Braxton Builders variant, so they get first crack at buying it)
  • Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Charge with Ancho Chile, Vanilla, Cinnamon and Cocoa
  • Maple and 23 year old Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Charge (you should read more about this)

The standard BA bottle will be $13, with each variant bottle running $15, except the Maple Bourbon Barrel version, that comes in a sweet box and runs $30. They’ll be hand numbered and released to the thirsty masses at noon to kick the party off.  Get in line folks, these are going to go fast!

Braxton Block PartyThe Party

Just as the bottle sale kicks off at noon, so does one heck of a party.  In a heated tent just west of the taproom you’ll find live music all day to entertain you. There are some really great food trucks (Cuban Pete, Empanadas Aqui, Texas Joe) to keep your belly happy and a metric shit ton of guest taps from breweries such as:

  • Upland
  • Rivertown
  • MadTree
  • Rhinegeist
  • West Sixth
  • Ethereal
  • Ei8ht Ball
  • Oskar Blues
  • New Belgium
  • Blank Slate
  • Against The Grain
  • Quaff Brothers
  • Central State
  • Country Boy
  • Avery

Braxton will of course be pouring a ton of their own beers, and you might be interested to know that they will have EVERY one of their barrel aged beers that they’ve made so far on tap that day.  We’re talking about beers like Union: Rouge, Barrel Aged Lumber, Dark Charge Variants, the works.  If that’s not reason enough to venture over to “The Tent”, I’m not sure that I can help you.

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