Whiskey Barrel Never Summer Ale
Boulder Beer / Wilderness Pub

 

 

 

 

Aged four months in whiskey barrels. Enjoyed at the 2012 Arizona Strong Beer Festival, poured in a small tasting glass.

Burnt orange and partly hazy, with nearly no head — just a thin patch of foam.

In the nose, I get a bit of toffee, caramel, oak, and very sweet sugary whiskey. Also picking up some butter, or butterscotch, as well as a little ethanol.

Bigger booze in the flavor blends with vinous oak, low-shelf whiskey, burnt sugar and caramel. Out-of-place floral notes emerge as well.

Smooth, creamy medium body. Pinching carbonation breaks the brew into very little fizz. Not too much booze heat, though there is some in the nose. Nice balance.

This barrel-aged version of Never Summer isn’t too heavy on the whiskey — which I like — but it is heavy on the alcohol flavor.

 

This is the Never Summer Ale that was dry hopped and aged in Stranahan Whiskey oak barrels...

Appears a hazy, crimson toned amber with a fluffy, off white head that sticks around and refuses to yield. Plenty of scattered lacing is left around the glass.
Smell is of generous amounts of oak soaked whiskey that hits the senses like warm caramel, toffee, and spice. Very nice.
Taste is of the mentioned aromas with more of the whiskey standing out and blending with the sweetness of the liquor, the spices and hops in the beer, and the vanillins, & bitter tannins from the oak.
Mouthfeel is medium-full bodied, boozy, and very well suited like a creme brulee that has a dusting of cinnamon.