Thor’s Hammer Barley Wine Bourbon Barrel Aged
Central City Brewers + Distillers

Central City Brewers 'Bourbon BA Thor's Hammer' @ 11.5% , served from a 330 ml bottle Day 18 Seasons Greetings & on tap at GCBF'17
A-pour is mahogany brown from the bottle to a murky brown in the glass without a head leaving no lace
S-bourbon
T-bourbon , hint's of barley wine
MF-no carbonation , full bodied
Ov-too much bourbon !!
prost LampertLand

2013 bottle so closing on 5 years age on this 650 ml bottle. Winter has arrived in Alberta so seemed appropriate. A slightly murky reddish brown pour with foamy tan head - returns easily with a bit of agitation but with creamier effect. Aroma is sweet - brown sugar, date, plum, a bit jammy, hints of molasses.
Tastes a bit more fruity with notes of plum, cherry, Decent amount of bourbon with sweet caramel malt. Finishes with some oaky bitterness - not really hoppy but a touch of lingering tart bitterness battling the underlying sugary sweetness. Aged well - really tasty.

2015 vintage Christmas Day 2019 - much the same beer but a bit more of that bourbon boozy note gives this a nice kick. My original score of 4.05 deserved an upgrade. Totally delicious.

 

 

01/2015 bottle date. Served at cellar Temps in a snifter.

Appearance: murky, brownish red with a fast fading head of brown bubbles. Unimpressive.

Nose: char, oaky, dried fruit cake, coconut, tons of Barrel character, cherry juice,

Taste: very thin mouthfeel, follows the nose with all of the barrel character, cherries, dried fruits, some boozy notes, very drinkable. Coconut, slight nutty flavor, tobacco, no oxidation at all. No hop character. Tons of malty sweetness from either the Bourbon Barrel or malt bill.

Overall: first of all, tons of value for money; it's $12 for a bomber of BBA English Barleywine. Who can complain about that. I'm impressed with all the barrel character. I'll hold on to another for a while to see the change.

 

Pours a thin head on a cloudy dark brown body.
The aroma is wood, raspberry, pear, grains, and strawberry jam.
The taste starts fruit sweet, then a little pine bitter, then lots of malt and fruit sweetness, and finishes with a mild woody bitterness. Great profile.
The texture is thicker.

 

 

Bottle: Poured a dirty cloudy dark brown color ale with a medium size dark brown foamy head with good retention and some light lacing. Aroma of caramelized malt with some vanilla and bourbon notes with quite a bit of residual sugar notes. Taste is also dominated by too much residual sugar notes with some bourbon and vanilla notes, light apparent alcohol and caramelized malt notes. Body is full with limited filtration and medium carbonation with some alcohol being apparent. A bit too sweet and un-balanced for my taste.

Poured into a Firestone Walker snifter. Uh-oh. Opens with a dull thud; no carbonation and pours the same. Dark mahogany brown without a trace of carbonation. Nice aroma of carmel malt, bourbon, dark dried fruit; classic English barleywine. Somewhat muted, perhaps due to stillness. Flavor is bourbon, sweet caramel malt, mild dark fruit, bourbon; booziness and some light hops take over and dominate into the finish. Medium bodied with some light syrupy qualities. Not sure if I got a bad bottle, or if this went still in the barrel. The aroma is great (if muted), and the flavor starts well, but descends in to a boozy, almost medicinal finish. There are some great flavors here, but this is really unbalanced to the point that the lack of carbonation really hurts it. Without being flat, this would have been pretty good. Fortunately I'm so drawn to bourbon English barleywines that this went down fairly well, but each sip reminded me of what it could be. Few reviews out there, so I'm not sure if this is an anomalous bottle or not. Would have scored at least a point higher with carbonation, a lack that may have harmed more than one criteria. A potentially tasty, but flawed English barleywine.