“This American Brown Ale was stored in various liquor barrels, sourced from Lark Distillery in Tassie. With a natural, toasty malt flavour, the barrels have imparted an ever-so-slight sour note which fully compliments the touches of bourbon and port which shine through.”
Served in an English pint. It hits the glass with a pecan hue and generates a fizzy finger of head. It reduced to a film which works a modest lace down the walls of the glass.
Holy moly. We were expecting complexity but not at the levels we’re being shown here. It has earthy, spicy, sweet, sour and woody all wrapped up in one. The olfactory’s are hit with a wave of truffle, carob, licorice, figs, earthy malts, sauna room, cherries and dark fruits with a syrupy port character opening up as it warms. Wow, the way it keeps improving is incredible. Very impressive aroma.
Quite a bit of sourness initially but it’s softened by the woody oak and eventually upstaged by the tart cherries and earthy fig through the middle. The longer it sits on the palate the stickier and sweeter it gets, showing not only brilliant progression but a complex dark fruit/port note that really goes the length on the back end.
It’s surprisingly highly carbonated and tart in the mouth. Moderately bodied with a somewhat frothy and aerated texture. The 8.9% ABV is discernible in patches but ultimately well concealed.
Definitely not what we were expecting that’s for sure. The initial sourness hands it this kind of Flemish oud bruin character and reminds us of 8 Wired’s Grand Cru at times. That is a damn fine beer. We’re stoked that we have another three in storage, can’t wait to see how they improve in the coming years.