A special limited release finished with one year of aging

Yellow Monkey Brewing (YMB) announced on its official blog that sales of "Barrel Aged Cranberry Ale" have begun. This bottle is limited to 150 bottles. It is positioned as a long-term aging project that stands apart from a typical new release.

The base beer is Cranberry Ale brewed in winter 2024, when YMB was still in its startup phase. This beer was aged for about one year in Chardonnay wine barrels imported directly from New Zealand, where the head brewer also gained experience. The brewery then blended the two barrels while carefully assessing each one’s character, layering in the firm tartness from the cranberries along with nuances reminiscent of white wine.

According to the product description, the style is Fruits Ale and the specs are Alc 6.0% / IBU 19.6. The recipe starts with a Strong Golden Ale base, adds cranberry juice, and is then fermented with wine yeast before barrel aging, aiming for a bright, lingering finish.

The package uses a 375ml champagne bottle. Because each bottle goes through hand filling, waxing, labeling, and craft-paper wrapping, production has been kept small. YMB’s taproom also offers it on draft, while the bottles are sold as two-bottle sets in the online store (shown as SOLD OUT at the time of the article).

Brewery context

YMB is a brewery based in Nakagawa, Tsuzuki Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, with a mission to "connect people through beer and sports and spread smiles." It operates its brewing facility and taproom as a community hub, offering a wide range of beers from regular staples to experimental limited releases. This bottle appears to be one that clearly shows YMB’s craftsmanship in building value through the use of "time."