For 2019, Reuben's Brews updated its packaging and barrel-aging capabilities. One of the many payoffs is this year's BBIS, short for bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout, this year's batch has been scaled up and delivered in three different variants for the first time.

As we count down the 24 days of December leading up to Christmas, we are highlighting one barrel-aged beer each day. View all of the beers on this year’s Barrel-Aged Beer advent calendar after they have been posted at https://www.newschoolbeer.com/category/ba-adventcalendar

Variants of barrel-aged or other Imperial-esque beers have become common, but usually those variants involve additional spices and adjunct. Reuben's Brews has designed its two alternates by aging the same base beer in a muscat grape wine barrel, and puncheons that once held cognac. The third edition is the classic bourbon barrel-aged version.

The primary bourbon BBIS was aged in 10-12 year bourbon barrels, but the brewery blended two-year old vintage BBIS into the fresh batch for complexity. The recipe for this year's base beer was also tweaked; lots of oats and British specialty malts were used, the same as previous years, but brewers used new techniques to create a bigger, richer, and silkier stout.

Bottles of all three variations of BBIS are available now in Oregon, Washington and parts of Idaho for $22 retail. Limited quantities available on draft as well.