When creating today's 10% ABV Cherry Wood Aged Baltic Porter, the brewers took the term "hand-crafted" to rustic extremes.

Most breweries age their beers exclusively on oak. So when Wisconsin's Ahnapee brewery turned to their local terroir and used the cherrywood unique to the shores of Lake Michigan, wood-aged beer seekers took notice.

Ahnapee chopped down and cut the wood into small discs, then let it season outside for an entire year before they kilned and toasted it themselves. Then the brewers aged the Baltic Porter on the cherrywood discs for another 12 months, unveiling the wood’s distinct character that compliments the body and chewiness of the base beer.

Cherry Wood has so much delicious depth, it takes several sips to reveal all it has to offer. The wood-aged fans that judged The World Beer Championships gushed over its aromas of smoking autumn leaves, carob, spruce, dried fig, coconut, and spiced apples. Its velvety body and drinkable dessert flavors of dark chocolate bread pudding, honey rosemary gelato, and a peanut brittle finish put it leagues beyond competing wood-aged beers.

The brewery’s hard work and innovative techniques paid off as Cherry Wood won Gold at the Tastings’ World Beer Championships in the Barrel Aged Category. Wood-aged fans who don’t get to try this beer will likely never know what they’re missing; there’s nothing out there quite like it.

Rated 4.28 on Untappd from 29 fans lucky enough to try it.