The second of the Alley Kat/Sherbrooke/Glenora Distillery collaboration is hitting the shelves sometime today. Glenda Sherbrooke follows in its older brother’s footsteps as a beer aged for 3 months in oak casks formerly containing single malt whiskey from Nova Scotia’s Glenora Distillery. The first version was Alley Kat’s Amber Ale and it found a way to clock in on the heavy side of 12%. If you liked that one, then you might love this one.

The base beer for Glenda is their latest version of Olde Deuteronomy, which is a lovely sipping beer all on its own. I am told that after its time in the barrels, it has finished at 18%. Unconfirmed reports suggest this is the highest alcohol beer ever bottled in Canada (if someone knows of a bottled product higher, please comment so we can correct the record).

Due to its hefty size, this will not be a cheap beer. The folks at Sherbrooke (read: Jim) say that the extra taxes (due to new provincial rules about beer over 11.9%) will be $4 a bottle alone. So, expect a beer at $10 or $11 a bottle. You may haver over that at first, but consider that Ola Dubh runs around that price. If this beer is as special as it has the potential to be, it may be worth every penny.

Don’t ask me to explain the label, but it clearly comes from the original imagination of Sherbrooke’s Jim. Maybe it is an ironic post-modern deconstruction of gender archetypes that offers a de-constructivist comment on the nature of bounded sensibilities of masculinity in 21st century society. (Okay, maybe I am reading too many social theory books these last few weeks…)

I also hear that this is the last Glen Sherbrooke in the series, making it even more special. However, Alley Kat is toying with continuing the series on their own in the future, so we may be able to anticipate more Alberta-based oak beer in the future.

And, of course, as I am in Halifax I will not be able to sample one for a while. So feel free to post your comments on the beer here. OR if anyone is feeling charitable, they could mail me a bottle out here…(okay, I don’t really expect that, but a guy has to try).