J. Wakefield Brewing is Moving

J. Wakefield Brewing is Moving

We reported two days ago that J. Wakefield Brewing is Closing in Wynwood, and that is true, but thats just the taproom closing. Not the brewery as a whole. Instead they are moving….. ….they just haven’t found a place yet. As they said in their original post:

– Yes, we are closing our Wynwood Taproom
– Yes, we are moving to another location

You will still be able to find them out on the market. And they still will be brewing. They just closed their Wynwood Taproom. (Located at 120 NW 24th St, Miami, FL 33127)

So don’t fully fret, they will be still out on the market and in distribution, just not have a physical location for you to visit them at.

Moving Announcement

Their new moving post on social media (8.8.24):

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

– Yes, we are closing our Wynwood Taproom
– Yes, we are moving to another location

WE WILL CONTINUE TO BREW
– You will be able to purchase the beer you’ve grown to love without interruption.
– We’ll be at everywhere you get your beer from
– We’ll be at supermarkets
– We’ll be at your local bars & restaurants
– thanks to our local distributors @keystomiamibeverage @cavbeer & @progressivebeer
– We can’t stop
– We won’t stop
– We can’t wait to show you all what’s next!!

#MadeInDade
#thethirstisreal

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— at J. Wakefield Brewing.

-J. Wakefield Brewing Facebook Post

BREAKING NEWS

It is with a heavy heart that we share some bittersweet news with all of you. After almost a decade of serving this beloved community of Wynwood, and everyone that traveled from afar to visit our taproom, we will be closing its doors. This decision has not come easily, but the ever-changing landscape of the neighborhood has presented challenges that we can no longer navigate effectively.

We want to extend our deepest gratitude for all your unwavering support and loyalty over the years. Your presence and enthusiasm have been the heartbeat of our taproom and each Wakefest that we’ve hosted. We have cherished every pint, and every story told within these walls. It has been a privilege to be part of such a vibrant community.

While we will be saying goodbye to our current location, we want you to know that our passion for brewing remains as strong as ever. We will continue to craft the same quality beers you have come to love and will stay actively engaged in the community through events, tap takeovers, and collaborations around the city.

To all the current and past employees- Your time and dedication to JWB have been invaluable, and your contributions have played a significant role in shaping our success, creating the vibrant atmosphere that have become the entire vibe of our establishment and brand. Whether you were with JWB for a season or for several years, your presence and hard work have left a lasting impact on our team and the community we’ve built together. THANK YOU for all you’ve ever done for JWB.

We’re excited to share that we are already working on finding a new location what will allow us to serve you even better. We’ll be keeping you updated on our progress and can’t wait to welcome you our new home when the time comes.

Thank you once again for being such a crucial part of our journey. We will miss you dearly, but we look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events, and of course, at our new location in the near future.

Our last weekend open will be October 26-27

Until then, we do have some special events lined up to make our farewell a memorable one. – STAY TUNED

#MadeInDade

#TheThirstIsReal

-J. Wakefield Brewing Company – Facebook Post

A time of friends getting together, working, hustling, doing a project, calls for something special, calls for something to be shared, enjoyed together as a group… and thats just what we did with Buddy Shots.

We were all together discussing time travel and doing our time travel podcast for So a Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar… – D. Scott, Esteban, Skot Shneck, and myself. This was also going to be our first filmed one and was going to be put up on YouTube as well, but unfortunately (or fortunately? – depending on your view of my handsome and roguish good looks) there were camera issues, so this stayed as just a podcast. You can find the time travel podcast here: WTF Did I Just Watch – Time Travel Flicks.

And having been looking for an opportunity to crack this open and enjoy, I figured what better way, what better time, what better place than during the podcast as a group to enjoy it. So, of course, thats just what I did. Because I’m an adult and I get to do things when I want – because thats what adults do gosh darn it.

I had gotten this a while back as part of a beer mail trade alongside the bottle of Thursday (2016) from Cycle Brewing Company. You can check the review out here at the link.

I enjoy doing local for local trades, as it gets me an opportunity to try beers I don’t normally get from smaller breweries in areas I don’t travel to, while also supporting my local breweries (by buying their beers to ship to these places) and gets them some word of mouth as well. I was a little bit disappointed with this trade, that I only got two beer bottles, from a relatively well known brewery – Cycle Brewing Company – in exchange for the 8 or 9 beers I had sent from Tattered Flag, Troegs Brewing, Boneshire Brew Works, and Ever Grain Brewing. But it is what it is, both of these beers were delicious, and were expensive bottles, so it wasn’t the worst trade in the world (glares at some of the trades the Phillies have made in the past….). Ok…. so lets get moving on and review this beer!

Shots! Shots! Shot shot shots! ….sorry for getting that horrible song stuck in your head now, but I just had to do it.

Beer: Buddy Shots
Brewery: Cycle Brewing Company
Style: Strong Ale – American
ABV: 11%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Description: Strong Ale brewed with 6 different malts with a little chocolate then aged in Jameson Whiskey barrels.

This certainly fits the descriptors, so if you like a strong ale, if you like a high alcohol tasting beer, and if you like Whiskey – particularly Jameson – than you are bound to like this. So luckily for myself, this all hit home and found the mark.

This is a solid dark black, ocher like. Razor Ramon jet black hair black. Not a tremendous amount of things to say about its appearance really, its dark black, it has a thin layer of head to it when poured out in the tasters for each of us, as well as the finishing of the bottle into a glass for myself. There is carbonation but not an extreme amount, and the foamy head is extremely thin but is there. Its an off-brown / off-white creamy looking thin head with nice bubbles.

Aroma has that strong kick of alcohol. You get an immediate nose of hard whiskey, Jameson whiskey, just punches through this. This smells like the barrel aged – in particular whiskey barrel aged – beers that you are probably familiar with, ones from Weyerbacher or the Goose Island stouts, etc. You know that nose as soon as you crack the bottle on these types of beers, just a straight heavy alcohol nose to it. The six varieties of malts do get blended in and provide a punch, and there is the faintest hint, like a wisp of it on the wind of baker’s chocolate.

Taste is a fair bit more complex than both its aroma and its appearance, thankfully. Not saying that its nose or appearance is bad or anything, its just in comparison to the taste, their nondescript and pretty much by the book, whereas the taste is complex, flavorful, strong, and downright delicious. There is certainly a complexity to this, mainly because of the six different malts used. I’ve tried looking up the malts (Google searched and checked Untappd) but haven’t found which malts they used exactly. (So if anyone does know, be sure to leave a comment telling me what malts they used.) There is definitely a richness and complexity of flavors to this. But, mostly it has that very high alcohol and barrel aged tasting to it. You get very heavy notes of Jameson Whiskey on this, and it is incredibly strong. This is similar to a lot of barrel aged beers I’ve had, like with Weyerbacher and others where it has that wooden, whiskey infused, heavy alcohol taste that is so rich and delicious, but with this, there is the different notes of malts used, so it adds a lot of differing notes to this, so its not straight strong alcohol. I got notes of roasted caramel, notes of baker’s chocolate, notes of a deep dark roast, slightly coffee, but not heavy, and a bit of an earthyness to it all. There is a slight sweetness to it, but its balanced by some bittering from the coffee and baker’s chocolate. It teeters on a blade’s edge between the two, never becoming too dominant one way or the other. This all creates a nice blend, more apparent in the full glass than in the tasters, as all the different malts, all the different complexities, different notes, all converge together and combine with the Jameson barrel aging, gives it a very deep heavy, sweet and bitter, and downright delicious tasty flavor. This is a well rounded, blended, beer that incorporates a lot of different notes and malts and is perfect to do ‘shots’ of with buddies, a bomber split up amongst four friends at 11% is plenty to have a good night (or to do a good podcast).

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.33 (as of 8.12.20)

Be sure to check out the time travel podcast, it was a lot of fun doing it, and I think it turned out really well. We covered Terminator, Futurama, Back to the Future, LOST, and many others. So be sure to give it a listen!

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

When in Rome… or when its Thursday and your beer is called Thursday, right? How can you not drink a beer called Thursday…. on any other day than Thursday? It’d be sacrilege otherwise! Heresy one might even say!

So here I am, late on a Thursday, enjoying a big, bold, deep, dark, delicious, four year aged stout. And this is a fine beer. And today was a day where I “earned” me this big bad stout. Early in the day, I stopped at the Central PA Blood Bank (by appointment, with my mask), and donated. I then braved humans and did my grocery shopping at Karn’s. Then home I did a lot of small chores about the house (mainly food prep.) So, like I said, I deserved this beer.

I cannot stress the importance of donating blood, especially at this crucial time. Blood is a premium right now, and unfortunately many who could donate before, no longer can (or are afraid to). Google or look up your local blood bank and contact them. It is safe, relatively pain free, and every donation can save up to three lives.

Ok, time for me to step down from my soap box, and move on.

In another local for local style trade, I sent two friends in Florida ten beers from local breweries – Pizza Boy, Tattered Flag, Boneshire Brew Works, Rubber Soul, and Ever Grain. In return, they sent me two Cycle Brewing bottles. Buddy Shots (2020) and Thursday (2016).

So I waited for a nice Thursday to drink the Thursday. Saving the Buddy Shots to drink with D. Scott or during one of our podcasts, so we can share it around. Once again, thats just obvious, it writes itself. As a famed director once said, “Its like poetry… it rhymes.” (Bonus points if you tell me in the comments section who said that!)

Alright, enough meandering talk, lets get to the beer review!

Beer: Thursday (2016)
Brewery: Cycle Brewing Company
Vintage: 2016
Style: Stout – American Imperial / Double
ABV: N/A
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Maple Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout (Maple DOS). We let the maple syrup barrels do their thing.

The 2016 version on Untappd doesn’t list an ABV. But the 2015 version does – 11%. The 2020 vintage lists it as 11.5%. So most likely the 2016 version is similar. (11-11.5%). Cycle Brewing Company is a micro brewery from St. Petersburg Florida. Untappd has them listed with 642 unique beers and a global average rating of 4.21. They have no description listed.

This pours out dark and heavy looking, foreboding one might say. Its black, and to pull out my trope one more time – Razor Ramon hair black. It has a nice brown creamy head. Interspersed and varied bubbles on the top, nice lacing on the glass as its drank. Quality stout all around.

Aroma is mostly bourbon. Thats forefront, center, left, and right of this beer. As soon as I popped the cap I was getting strong bourbon barrel notes. Theres not much else aroma-wise. Perhaps some hint of maple, but I’m not really getting it. The extra four years of cellaring might have worn the aroma thin on this.

Flavor is good, nice, tasty, heavy bourbon barrel, little notes of wood, but no real true taste of maple. The mouthfeel is a little bit thin, but it still has a strong presence. I think the maple and the thinness are probably a result of the four years of cellaring. The thinness isn’t too much of a problem. There is no off flavors, or cloying or sweetness; which I figured some sweetness due to the maple, but its not present. It still has a good boozy bite to it, but as it warms and as you sip it, the bite mellows and it just becomes pretty smooth. Full warmed up, this is just a nice sipping bourbon heavy stout. By this point you don’t taste the (presumably) 11%, but you certainly know its there.

I think maybe four years is a bit too long to sit on this and age. Two years is probably the sweet spot for it. Would be interesting to have tried this fresh, for comparison’s sake.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.27 (as of 5.7.20)

Sadly, I don’t have a Friday, so I can’t do that tomorrow. But make sure to check back in tomorrow for another post!

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline