Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery has put a new bourbon barrel porter, Drawknife, on its seasonal list in Hood River, Oregon, and brought back its winter ale, Fa La La La La, for another year. The official beer pages for both releases were live when we checked on the morning of Nov. 11, 2026, and The Full Pint reported on Nov. 10 that both beers are available now at Double Mountain locations. The announcement does not name a distribution footprint, and this article does not invent one.
Drawknife is the debut. The official beer page lists it as a bourbon barrel-aged porter at 6.8% ABV and 40 IBU, fermented with Kölsch yeast and hopped in the kettle with Simcoe, Zappa and HBC 638. The brewery says Drawknife is named for the traditional cooperage tool used to shape barrel staves. After primary fermentation, the porter was racked into freshly emptied bourbon barrels and left in the warehouse cellar for three months. The official notes say those casks were 4-, 8- and 10-year bourbon barrels sourced from close by; the brewery adds that it is not at liberty to say exactly where, only that the source is nearby.
What Drawknife tastes like, in the brewery’s words
The official Drawknife page is the source for the beer’s own tasting notes. It describes a dark-chocolate appearance; an aroma of vanillin, caramel, tootsie roll, graham cracker and mild oak; a mouth of hazelnut, “Columbian coffee,” nutty character and a whisper of bourbon; and a finish of balanced astringency, baker’s chocolate, more caramel and vanillin, “not too heavy.” The same page says the heat on the aroma is deceiving and that the lower ABV makes the beer drink nicely. Those are the brewery’s words, not a review.
Head brewer Greg Balch is quoted in The Full Pint’s write-up in language that also appears in the official brewer’s notes: “We love the nuance barrels can give, working with local companies to procure barrels, and rolling the dice on aging things into barrels.” He goes on to say the beer is “wonderful for this time of year,” with “all the vanillin and caramel and toffee and dry baker’s chocolate you could ask for,” and that “a pint doesn’t kick your ass either.” The Full Pint version uses “aging things into barrels”; the official notes say “resting things into barrels.” Either way, the point of Drawknife is a barrel porter meant to be drunk as a pint, not as a night-ending sipper.
A lower-ABV barrel beer stands apart from bigger imperial stouts. BeerAlien recently looked at that heavier end of the cellar in coverage of FoBAB 2026 in Chicago and of AleSmith’s Speedway Grand Prix, where barrel-aged Speedway Stout variations are the draw. Drawknife is not in that weight class, and the brewery is clear about that. The official notes also tell drinkers to look for another bourbon barrel-aged beer “coming soon in March.” The Full Pint’s presentation of the brewery release adds that the March beer will “celebrate 20 years.” The official Drawknife page does not itself mention a 20th anniversary, so that framing is attributed to the release as The Full Pint published it, not to the beer page.
Fa La La La La is back, with this year’s Centennial tweaks
Fa La La La La is a returning winter ale, not a new brand. The official beer page lists it at 7.5% ABV and 85 IBU, also fermented with Kölsch yeast. Official hops are Warrior and Centennial in the kettle, a Centennial hop back, and a Centennial dry hop. Official malts are Pilsner, Crystal 75 and Red X. The page describes a chestnut color; aromas of evergreen sap, orange marmalade, juicy pine, Honeycrisp apple and a little dank herb; and a finish the brewery calls assertive, with dewy evergreen, citrus rind and lightly toasted caramel.
The official brewer’s notes say the beer is tinkered with every year and that this year’s change, made with founder Matt Swihart’s blessing, was to dial back the Crystal malt and replace a good portion of it with Red X, a German malt the brewery says holds the color of crystal and caramel malts without a thicker caramel flavor. The notes say the color did not change but the mouthfeel lightened, “letting the Centennials shine,” and that a touch more Centennial went into the late additions and the dry hop. The official seasonal listing puts it more briefly: “Bags full of Centennial hops give a delicious citrus and resinous hop character. Pilsner and Crystal malts provide the base for this one-horse open sleigh.”
The Full Pint write-up, written in the brewery’s first-person voice, adds two details that do not appear on the official Fa La La La La beer page: that this year’s entire Centennial crop was sourced from Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and that Strata “join[ed] the bittering addition.” Because the official hop list names Warrior and Centennial only, those two extra claims are attributed here to the release as The Full Pint published it, not treated as facts the official page confirms.
Where to find Drawknife, and what the packaging reports say
The Full Pint says both beers are available now at Double Mountain locations, that Fa La La La La returns in 12-ounce refillable-bottle six-packs, and that Drawknife debuts in 500ml refillable bottles. The official beer pages do not themselves list those pack sizes. Double Mountain does run a long-standing refillable-bottle program — the official homepage was counting more than 2.8 million refillable bottles sold when we checked — but the 500ml and 12-ounce six-pack details are attributed to The Full Pint’s report, not to the beer pages.
The brewery’s official site lists three taprooms: the Hood River brewery and taproom at 8 4th St., Hood River, OR 97031; Overlook at 1700 N. Killingsworth Street, Portland, OR 97217; and Woodstock at 4336 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland, OR 97206. Official hours are posted on each location page. The Full Pint does not break availability down by room, and the official beer pages do not either, so this article does not claim a pour at any one address beyond what “available now at Double Mountain locations” already says. A Hood River neighbor, Ferment Brewing, has had its own packaged releases in this town; that is a separate brewery.
Drawknife is the new one to look for in the cellar case, if the 500ml refillable bottles are on the shelf as The Full Pint described. Fa La La La La is the returning winter ale. March, the brewery says, will bring another bourbon barrel beer. Until then, the official word on Drawknife is that a pint is not supposed to flatten you.
BEERALIEN.COM | Reporting on Earth’s finest craft beers from a galaxy far, far away.
