Fancy Pants Sunday: Prairie Artisan Indulge Me
Fashion-wise, we keep things casual at Peaks & Pints: cut-off flannels, brewery T-shirts, jeans and shorts, and the latest thrift store finds are all par for the course. Still, now and then, it’s fun to get dressed up a little bit, gather all your friends to do the same, and indulge in fancy craft beer. That’s the premise for our weekly Fancy Pants Sunday column — a column that champions high ABV, complex, and delicious craft beers — although we accept casual-clothed sippers, too. Stop by for Fancy Pants Sunday: Prairie Artisan Indulge Me, the Oklahoma City brewery’s pastry stout.
After sharing their different and experimental variations of saisons working as nomadic brewers, brothers Chase and Colin Healey decided it was time to have a brewery of their own. They raised more than $20,000 on Kickstarter with the help of fans and formed Prairie Artisan Ales in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2012. Chase Healey grabbed the brewhouse while his brother is the talent behind the fun, funky branding, and logo design. Together, they brought a unique perspective to brewing — especially big bold barrel aged stouts and super crisp and funky farmhouse ales. Their first brewed beer was a farmhouse ale simply called “Prairie Ale.” In 2013, they brewed their first batch of Bomb!, their flagship imperial stout. In 2016, Krebs Brewing Company formally acquired the Prairie Artisan Ale brands.
Demand for their beers exploded, and their distribution footprint began to grow. Today, Prairie is distributed in more than 40 states in the US, across Europe, South America, several countries in Asia, and in Australia. In 2017, they opened a taproom in Oklahoma City as part of a mixed-use redevelopment of an old warehouse near Automobile Alley. Prairie became the anchor tenant in the building, inhabiting 4,000 square-feet with a brewery, tap room, and creative art space.
That’s all fine and dandy, but let’s get to drinking Prairie’s fancy pastry stout, Indulge Me. Prairie aged a rich bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout and then layered it with toasted coconut, chocolate chips, and real cake mix for chocolate coconut liquid candy bar nose with hints of booze and wood. This thick-bodied yet smooth stout brings sweet burnt chocolate sweetness and whiskey caramel with vanilla oak notes before a straight-up chocolate cake finish. When the 14.9-percent stout warms the booze could overshadow other flavors.
You fancy, Prairie Artisan Indulge Me!
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