Spilled Beans
Sixpoint Brewery

 

 

 

Poured from a crowler into a snifter. This is their 5Beans barrel aged. Interesting beer. Opaque inky brown color with a moderate light tan head. Big cardamom on the nose with some roasted coffee and faint roasted malt. The palate is much more complex, with cardamom, fresh coffee, cocoa, and toast. The oak and bourbon notes appear near the end and meld nicely with the coffee and chocolate. A slightly hot finish, reminding me of the ABV. Great sipper.

 

Poured from a growler into a Sixpoint tulip. Pours a very dark brown with a small, brown head. The head quickly dissipated leaving a ring and minimal lacing. There is alcohol, coffee, chocolate and mint (huh?) on the nose. The first thing I'm getting on the taste is mint. I'm not sure if there's mint in this, because I thought this was an early barrel-aged version of 5 Beans. I'm getting coffee and chocolate with the mint and almost no alcohol, even though it was heavy on the nose, making this dangerously easy to drink. I'm also getting almost no barrel notes or cardamom. It's fairly heavy carbonation and a bit thinner than I expected. Overall this is a very tasty, easy to drink, barrel-aged porter. Not what I expected at all, but I would easily buy this if Sixpoint put it in cans. Another great beer from Sixpoint you should grab if you can find it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much to my surprise (in a good way), this beer was on tap at Bailey's Upper Lip last night.

The beer pours pretty dark brown color with excellent head retention and considerable creamy lacing. The nose is pretty complex, as I pick up coffee, dark chocolate, hints of dark cherry, vanilla and a bit of whiskey as well. The menu at the UL indicated this beer was aged in whiskey barrels, but there really isn't a huge whiskey presence in this beer (either on the nose or on the palate). The flavor profile replicates the nose pretty closely, and while the beer was fairly sweet, it seemed like the whiskey element helped to balance that sweetness pretty nicely. Assuming this is a barrel aged version of 4 beans (for example), this beer did not seem as sweet as the regular base beer. Mouthfeel was fairly full, but with no sense of heaviness or heat on the finish. Alcohol seemed to be very well integrated into the flavor profile, and it was certainly no chore drinking down my 300 ml glass.

Couple of thoughts. While I liked this beer just fine, I'm not sure the barrel aging improved it much. Frankly, I preferred the regular version I was able to sample some months back, and given the price tag (it was $10 for my 9.96 ounce pour - give me a break with the ml. pour sizes guys), I really wasn't tempted to get a second glass. Bailey's has the reputation for pricing their beers very fairly, so I just think this is a pretty expensive beer. It's a very good beer as well, but given the price point, I'm not sure how often I'd want to order this.