Sly Fox, Manatawny Still Works release collaborative whiskey, beer
POTTSTOWN » Sly Fox Brewing and Manatawny Still works have collaborated on two new beverages — a beer and a whiskey — that have been making their debut during the last week. The official release party happens on Saturday, March 14.
The collaboration between the two companies has been in the works for a couple of years. Max Pfeffer used to be a brewer at Sly Fox, but moved over to Manatawny Still Works as head distiller when that business opened in Pottstown in 2014.
“I wanted to do the collaboration because we’re neighbors, we have a close relationship and it just made sense,” Pfeffer said. Both businesses are located on Circle of Progress Drive in Pottstown — Sly Fox at 331 and Manatawny at 320.
“For our Batch 20, part of our ongoing Small Batch series, we took Sly Fox’s Nihilist Stout recipe and distilled it as whiskey, then we let it sit in new oak barrels for three years,” Pfeffer said.
The barrels that were used to age the whiskey were then taken to Sly Fox.
“Our coveted Russian Imperial Stout was carefully aged in Manatawny Still Works’ premium oak cooperage in which a batch of Nihilist whiskey had matured for more than three years,” said Keith Maynard, Philadelphia Market Manager for Sly Fox.
“Through this collaboration, we show the close relationship between beer and whiskey — they are, essentially, made in the same way,” Pfeffer added.
According to Sara Jagiela, events and marketing manager at Sly Fox, the process for both beer and whiskey begins with the same barley and malted ingredients. In fact, she said, Sly Fox brews the mash for all of Manatawny’s whiskeys.
“We took the beer recipe — the grains/grain bill — and distilled it as whiskey. Beer and whiskey are cousins, but for whiskey you must leave out the hops,” Pfeffer added.
He added that the roasted malt in the stout recipe translates well to whiskey in the form of cocoa and coffee notes. Those sampling Batch 20, he said, will get a variety of tastes, including:
• Nose — vanilla, oak, apricot, burnt sugar
• Palate — vanilla, coffee, malt
• Finish — dark chocolate, dry Maynard said he believes people will be “kind of blown away” by the complexity of Sly Fox’s Nihilist Russian Imperial Stout. He calls it “a sipper of a beer.”
“Rich vanilla and caramel notes imparted by the barrels complement the robust chocolate and roasted malt character of the original liquid and transform the beer into a delicious doppelgänger,” he said.
According to Pfeffer, Manatawny Still Works produced two barrels of whiskey, while Sly Fox
produced 36 kegs of beer, according to Maynard.
The companies have hosted a couple of tastings in the Philadelphiaarea, and plan to debut the products in a joint Nihilist Stout and Nihilist Whiskey release on Saturday, March 14.
Jagiela said all of the Sly Fox locations — in Pottstown, Phoenixville, Malvern and Wyomissing — will offer the a beer on tap and a Batch 20 whiskey shot to go along with it from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Pfeffer added that the Manatawny Still works tasting room in Pottstown will offer the same pairing.
Both specials are available while they last, according to Pfeffer. The Batch 20 whiskey is for sale at Manatawny Still Works locations and sells for $50 a bottle. The collaboration beer is available on draft at Sly Fox Brewing locations, the Manatawny Still Works Tasting Room on East Passyunk in Philadelphia, at the Pottstown Distillery and select bars and restaurants across the area Also available at the release party will be a cupcake — a toffee chocolate stout cupcake — crafted by Pottstown’s Beverly’s Pastry Shop. Owner Kristen Sirbak said she was approached about doing a cupcake that features both the beer and the whiskey. “I like creating new flavors and I said ‘awesome, let’s do it.’ It was right up my alley,” Sirbak said, adding that she is familiar with adding beer and liquor to cupcakes. Sirbak said she used Sly Fox’s new stout as the liquid in the cupcake, “so it is a prominent flavor.” “We took the stout and the whiskey and made a glaze out of it, then we took that glaze and added it to a chocolate ganache. Then we filled the cupcake with the whiskey stout ganache,” she said. Sirbak added that she made caramel with some of the whiskey and mixed it into the shop’s signature buttercream to top each cupcake.
“Then we drizzled more of that glazed ganache on top and added some toffee bits,” she added.
Sirbak said she made 13½ dozen of the cupcakes for the release party. She said she did make some extras, which will be available at Beverly’s Pastry Shop, 322 E. High St., Pottstown.