Oakenbock
Fort Street Brewery

On tap at Fort Street Brewery. Mahogany, lots of clarity and vibrancy with shades of deep ruby-red thrown about from edge to edge. The khaki cream top waddles down from a finger to a skin relatively quickly, leaving behind some sheety lace, and successive foamy rings as the collar transcends downward in the glass.

A little bit of leather, some faint smoke and peatiness, with a mild introduction of bourbon soaked, delicately charred oak chips. A bit of burnt caramel and maybe even brown sugar, but overall it doesn't seem so sweet. Smells like a blueprint Hair of the Dog beer, only with about ten times less presence and body. And less sweetness. And possibly less refinement. Though it still smells fairly decent afterall.

Whew, the flavor is heavy on the barrel aging, no doubt. Oak and bourbon are the two main drivers of the flavor profile from start to finish, never really letting up. There's a touch of vanilla and a bit of cola-like flavor on the back end, but the smoke, peat, and leather have been tuned down about six or seven notches than they were on the nose. What gives?

Much of the acclaimed maltiness (and successive sweetness) has been lost to good attenuation (which isn't a bad thing) and overpowering bourbon-barrel presence (which isn't a good thing). It remains somewhat thin and light bodied for being a bourbon barrel beer, obviously due to the style itself, but the flavor power doesn't match the mouth feel and it creates a weird disillusion. It does, however, help the drinkability in terms of heft.

Not bad, but it would be difficult to put down more than one of these; the bourbon and oak presence is just far too powerful. I believe the bock based beer used may not have been robust enough to stand up to the bludgeoning arms of the bourbon barrel, thus resulting in a beer that has been completely overrun by woody, burning heat. Again, it's not awful, it's just not really my thing, I guess.