Revolver Brewing sits on 6 acres of farmland surrounded by horses, cattle, and fields of seemingly endless wildflowers. Just over an hour southwest of Dallas in the farmland of Granbury, Texas, Revolver Brewing was built from the ground up and has brought forth one of the most successful beers in the short history of Dallas’ current brewing boom. That beer is Blood & Honey. One of the most ubiquitous craft brews in our region, Blood & Honey is an unfiltered American wheat ale finished with blood orange zest and local honey. Some might say, why mess with perfection? Well, founding partner and brew master, Grant Wood, decided to do just that. He wanted to see what barrel aging might do to Blood & Honey. Let’s see what he has to say.
“We’re talking today about Sangre y Miel, which is the first barrel aged beer we ever did here at Revolver. It came about because we’d been making Blood & Honey and I wanted to do some barrel aging. There were some barrels that became available from a local winery right here in Granbury called Barking Rocks. So, I’d been talking to the winemaker, Tiberia. He said he had some white wine barrels and wondered if I could use them. I said sure. And so, I just had a couple of them.
I took some Blood & Honey from the aging tank and put it in the barrel and really didn’t add anything else. It was just whatever had been in there previously. Wine carries a variety of microflora. Not only regular wine fermentation yeast but I think there was a little Brettanomyces and some Lactobacillus in there. Particularly after it had been emptied, it has an opportunity for those things to proliferate so we put in the Blood & Honey and just left it there for a while. It was really interesting. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out.
And so, it had been about 8 or 9 months and I pulled some from the barrel and I tasted it. I was just really pleased with the profile. It had taken the Blood & Honey, which is typically a bit softer and rounder with some subtle spicing, a little bit of the orange, and is just easy drinking, and added all this complexity. The spices were down and the slight tartness had created this almost lemony flavor. It was bright. It had a little bit of the funk from the Brettanomyces and the Lactobacillus and was tart, but not vinegary or sour. I just loved it, and so we’ve been making it for the last couple of years with very limited, draft-only releases in slim kegs.”
If you are fortunate enough to get your hands on this, whether it be in the glass or in the growler, consider yourself one of the lucky few. Also, it is not cheap. But once it hits your lips, and then your tongue, and then everywhere else in your body, you’ll be nothing but grateful.
A few places that should have it are the Whole Foods at Park Lane, Craft & Growler, Common Table (June 5), Dot’s Hop House (June), and Luck (June 26). It will also make an appearance at this weekend’s Index Fest. Whatever it takes, you need to taste this beer.
