A new lineup of barrel-aged beers at Cruz Blanca, 904 W. Randolph St., include Maravilla, from left, Escorpion, Barbarosa, Coco Fantasma, Rey Gordo, Caramelita Suave, Senor Bandito and Rey Cuvee. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Cruz Blanca Brewery refuses to do things the way most other breweries do. And it does it quite well.

The West Loop brewery’s 2021 crop of Luchador barrel-aged beers, which will be released Saturday, amount yet again to Cruz Blanca wading into its own inventive wonderland, where an array of ingredients, both unique and familiar, are employed to an eye-opening range of boozy outcomes.

As for doing it well, look no further than the gold medal Cruz Blanca scored for a Luchador beer last weekend at Chicago’s Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer.

Cruz Blanca head brewer Jacob Sembrano broke this year’s release into three categories meant to offer starkly unique experiences: Fruits, blondes and stouts. Each is self-explanatory. But what lurks in each bottle is anything but.

Here’s a look at each of the eight Luchador beers ahead of Saturday’s release at Cruz Blanca (904 W. Randolph St.).

All will be on draft, and bottles of Maravilla, Barbarosa, Coco Fantasma and Escorpión will be available for sale. (The others sold out in an online presale.) Rey Gordo will be distributed to a handful of beer stores starting Tuesday.

Sembrano said these two beers were built from a deliberately “really neutral beer base” to act as a canvas for massive fruit additions — so big, Sembrano said, “that the fruits do the majority of heavy lifting for body, flavor, color and clarity.”

And it should be noted: Rather than adding the fruits as a final step, which many breweries do for fruited barrel-aged beers, the fruits are entwined into the beer throughout 10 months of aging in barrels. The goal, Sembrano said, was “really well-integrated fruit flavor that’s its own single entity.”

Brewer Tom Kavanaugh demonstrates a pour of Escorpion at Cruz Blanca, 904 W. Randolph St., on Nov. 16, 2021, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Imperial prickly pear and dragon fruit ale aged in cabernet wine and Barbados rum barrels

“There’s got to be one weird one in the mix and this is it,” Sembrano said.

But in reality, it’s not that weird, especially for a beer made with whole prickly pear fruit, prickly pear juice, dragon fruit puree and dried dragon fruit — none of which I can recall tasting in a beer before Escorpión.

Sembrano said this was a deliberate challenge: “I don’t think people generally are super comfortable with the flavor and aroma of prickly pear and dragon fruit.” That approach is precisely why the Luchador series is worth checking out every year.

The prickly pear does come across with unusual depth of flavor, but it pulls in several familiar directions; at its core, it evokes notes of banana and cotton candy sweetness. Sembrano said he detects a “bubblegum-cocktail thing going on with the rum and wine adding oak structure.”

Escorpión is one-of-a-kind: sweet and round with a lush cream soda note that dries into a lightly bitter finish that means it never loses sight of the fact that, above all, it’s still beer. 11.5% alcohol

Brewer Tom Kavanaugh demonstrates a pour of Barbarosa at Cruz Blanca, 904 W. Randolph St., on Nov. 16, 2021, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Imperial raspberry ale aged in Heaven Hill bourbon and cabernet wine barrels

Here’s the FOBAB gold medal winner — and it’s well deserved.

Barbarosa is Sembrano’s favorite beer of this year’s Luchador lineup — though not mine; keep reading for that — and it reverberates with rich berry character. It’s almost as reminiscent of jam-like cabernet as it is beer.

A gorgeous, tart-sweet earthy aroma is followed by bright fruitiness up front, but Barbarosa is not just sweet; a touch of acidity and light bitterness in the finish keep things balanced. Still, “jammy” is the word I kept coming back to. It’s that rich with berries.

Sembrano laughed as he said the beer “mimics a Wisconsin fruit wine — sweet and intense color, like a blackberry merlot.”

Barbarosa is a pinnacle of beer experimentation. 11% alcohol

Like the fruit beers, the blondes share a base. It includes lactose, which adds a sweet and creamy underpinning, meshing well with the ingredients at work. These are my least favorite, though they still have merit.

Brewer Tom Kavanaugh demonstrates a pour of Maravilla at Cruz Blanca, 904 W. Randolph St., on Nov. 16, 2021, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Imperial blonde ale aged in Barbados rum and Woody Creek rye whiskey barrels with Mexican vanilla

Sembrano said this beer was born of wanting to explore vanilla as a popular ingredient for barrel-aged beers, but outside the standard framework of a stout.

This beer is truly a vanilla beast with a remarkable aroma that smells like the guts of a vanilla eclair, with a light bready note. It doesn’t just smell of vanilla but rich vanilla, spanning different wrinkles — rich, fruity, earthy and evoking marshmallow, cream soda and creme brulee.

A little bit goes a long way, but this is an impressive take on barrel-aged elegance; I could see this paired with a dessert course at a pricy restaurant. 12.5% alcohol

Imperial blonde ale aged in Barbados rum and Woody Creek rye whiskey barrels with chocolate, coconut and almond

Once again, a little bit goes a long way.

But this beer, which was also released last year, is well done for what it is. And what it is, Sembrano said, is “trying to be a little silly” while giving beer drinkers the over-the-top candy bar sensation many people like in barrel-aged beers.

It comes across less sweet and one-dimensionally over-the-top than Maravilla, with a meeker aroma and a bit more balance from a rich, chocolaty undercurrent and a low-key nutty note. 12.5% alcohol

The barrel character generally rides shotgun to the massive and inventive layers of flavor in the blondes and fruit beers. In the stouts, they’re front and center.

Brewer Tom Kavanaugh demonstrates a pour of Rey Gordo at Cruz Blanca, 904 W. Randolph St., on Nov. 16, 2021, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Imperial stout aged in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels

The flagship of the series is a simple stout aged in whiskey barrels, and it is reliably one of the finest beers released all year in Chicago. The 2019 version won our blind tasting of 18 Chicago-area stouts.

This year’s upholds the tradition: a brawny stout deep with notes of leather, tobacco, dark chocolate, oaky molasses and espresso. Some barrel-aged stouts show notes of soft fruit or vanilla, but there’s little of that here. This is a lovely bruiser, and my favorite of the entire lineup.

Sembrano said he thinks it’s the best version of Rey Gordo to date, but not because of the ingredients or the recipe. The key, he said, is “small things in procedure itself, like mash temperatures and fermentation management — getting it really dialed in not with ingredients, but procedure.”

For the first time, this beer will go into distribution, appearing on store shelves. If I see it, I’ll buy another bottle. 13.5% alcohol

Imperial stout aged in Woody Creek rye whiskey barrels with black, Morello, and Luxardo cherries, Mexican cassia bark and Ceylon cinnamon

Señor Bandito is also returning from last year’s lineup, though Sembrano has an admission: “I think I overdid it with the adjuncts this year,” he said. “Last year was well-balanced, and I ended up following the same recipe, but upped the cherry 20%. And I personally think I tipped the scale a little bit.”

I don’t disagree; the aroma is a blast of cherry and cinnamon.

But here’s the good news: If you like cherry and cinnamon flavors, you’ll be happy. Señor Bandito is a one-dimensional beer, but it’s a fun dimension. Four ounces is plenty. 13% alcohol

Imperial stout aged in Barbados rum barrels with Metric coffee and dulce de leche

The dulce de leche might make you expect a sweeter beer, but this thankfully is not.

The coffee does much of the heavy lifting, leaps from the glass with a sharp-elbowed espresso note. As the beer warms, the dulce de leche emerges but always stays in a supporting role. Layers continue to emerge: dark chocolate, tobacco and roasty and fruity notes.

Incorporating the dulce de leche was a challenge, Sembrano said, but he devised a method he won’t share as a proprietary secret.

“I found it to be quite inventive while maintaining color and clarity,” he said.

This is a robust beer with pleasantly sharp edges and a lot going on — but not too much. The finish is particularly interesting: a wave of coffee with a caramel underpinning, and then a lingering coffee bite. This is a wonderful and expressive coffee stout softened subtly by the dulce de leche. 12.5% alcohol

2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Rey Gordo blended and barrel-aged in Woodford Reserve barrels

Sembrano calls this “a powerful one.” That may be underselling its leathery depth.

Rey Gordo is a big, but lovely, balanced dance of a beer; Rey Cuvée is a punch — a massive, smoky, prune-meets-black-licorice aromatic punch. The aroma had me worried that the beer would be too burly, but it’s not.

A rich, fudgy, dark chocolate note is central, acting as a conduit for the other elements. It’s a deep, warming and wonderful beer and perfect capstone to one of the most playful and interesting barrel-aged lineups in Chicago. 13% alcohol