The release is going to be limited to just 50 bottles…
There’s a certain kind of beer that doesn’t need fireworks to make its presence felt. No cartoon labels, no “limited-edition” hype, no sugar-loaded stunt ingredients. Just time, patience, and a brewer’s confidence that the beer will speak for itself. Groove Brewing in Scranton is releasing one of those beers this Friday, November 28: Barrel-Aged Garage Stout, a run of only 50 wax-dipped bottles, each one built on more than two years inside Heaven Hill bourbon barrels.
For a brewery that usually prefers understatement to spectacle, this one quietly carries some weight.
A bigger, older, barrel-aged expression of a Groove staple…
Garage Stout isn’t new. It’s one of Groove’s anchor beers — part of the Garage Imperial Stout series, which nods to both the industrial bones of the building and to Mike, the previous owner, whose “rich work character,” as Groove puts it, helped inspire the beer.
Their own description on Untappd keeps things plainspoken:
“The Garage is going to be our Imperial Stout series. Inspired by the rich work character of Mike the previous owner of the building and well imperial stouts are thick like motor oil. This brew has a deep rich chocolate flavor accented with a robust roasted character. Boiled for 3 hours to add a velvety smooth mouthfeel.”
That’s the foundation Groove tucked into the bourbon barrels, a stout already dense, chocolate-forward, and built on a long, three-hour boil. No adjuncts. No pastry spin. Just the base beer and 25 months of slow interaction with charred oak, vanilla, and whatever else the barrels were willing to give.
Plenty of barrel-aged stouts chase extremes. Groove’s version goes in a different direction: bourbon warmth that stays balanced, chocolate that deepens without tipping sweet, roast that mellows into something almost contemplative. A beer with gravity, not gimmicks.
Why this beer fits Groove Brewing so well…
Groove is one of those Scranton breweries that never seems in a rush to chase trends. Their taproom on East Market isn’t built around spectacle; it’s built around regulars. Their beers, crisp lagers, expressive but restrained IPAs, dialed-in pale ales, tend to be clean, careful, and confident.
That’s why a beer like this makes sense for them. They don’t pump out barrel-aged releases often, and when they do, it’s not because the calendar says they should. Barrel-Aged Garage Stout feels like something they brewed because they were curious what patience might yield, not because they needed a trophy bottle.
The small run of wax-dipped bottles reinforces that point. So do the numbers: fifty bottles isn’t engineered scarcity, it’s simply what you end up with when you don’t expand for the sake of expanding.
A beer built for Winter evenings…
Releasing this beer right after Thanksgiving feels intentional. It’s the time of year when the cold settles in for good, and people start reaching for beers that stay in the glass a while, something you sip slowly as the night gets long.
The base Garage Stout already carries that energy. The barrel-aged version leans into it even more. This is a beer made for quiet winter rituals: the first night the snow sticks, the weekend that finally slows down, the evenings when you want something that’s as much an experience as it is a drink.
The release…
Friday, November 28
Groove Brewing — East Market Street, Scranton
Only 50 bottles available
500ml, wax-dipped
Expect it to disappear quickly, even without any fanfare. Groove’s regulars know what the brewery does with time, oak, and restraint, and this beer is all three.
