“This is the most ambitious project we’ve ever undertaken” — words that carry some weight, especially coming from The Lost Abbey’s director of brewery operations Tomme Arthur.
Tomorrow the San Marcos brewery will release their Ultimate Box Set, a collection of twelve special-edition beers packaged in hand-built, numbered metal road cases designed in collaboration with Grammy award-winning art director Matt Taylor of Varnish Studio and John Schulz of StudioSchulz (see his photo to the right).
Since January 2012, 350 375mL corked, hood-and-wire caged bottles of one beer — or “track” — have been unveiled for on-site consumption at the brewery’s tasting room every month, with two releases this month. Each beer’s colloquial name is inspired by classic rock songs invoking Heaven or Hell, and tomorrow 500 lottery winners who’ve purchased one of the track beers will have the chance to buy the entire collection for $450. These will be the only full bottles ever allowed to leave the brewery.
If you haven’t put your name in the hat by coming out to a previous track release, you could still be in luck; 45 names will be drawn from those who purchase a bottle of Track 12, the release of which coincides with the box set bonanza starting at 10 a.m.
Further learning:
– Brandon Hernández has gone more in-depth on the subject for The Reader.
– Tomme Arthur will quite fittingly be the guest on FM 94/9’s Rock & Roll Happy Hour tonight at 7 p.m.; follow the link to listen live.
– Track 8, a base of Judgment Day aged in freshly emptied bourbon barrels then spiked with liberal additions of cinnamon stick and dried chili pepper, took the bronze medal in the Experimental Ales and Lagers category at this year’s Great American Beer Festival.