Commando
Sprecher Brewing Company

 

 

This one is POTENT! I do like the scotch beers but... overpowering on this one.

Taste: bold, woody oak, peat, spiced malt, sweet, bourbon warming finish. Same with the nose. Brown hue, semi clear, with tan head and delicate lace. Medium/full body. good on cool nights. I had this beer a few years ago.

22 ounce bottle into snifter, bottled on 11/16/2012. Pours fairly hazy/cloudy deep reddish/copper/light brown color with a 1-2 finger dense and rocky light khaki head with great retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of big raisin, plum, fig, pear, apricot, red apple, caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, bourbon, and toasted oak; with lighter notes of vanilla, coconut, toffee, peat smoke, leather, roast, herbal, pepper, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of fruity yeast, dark/bready malt, bourbon barrels, and light earthy hop notes; with great strength. Slight booze in the aromas as it warms, but not overwhelming. Taste of big raisin, plum, fig, pear, apricot, red apple, caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, bourbon, and toasted oak; with lighter notes of vanilla, coconut, toffee, peat smoke, leather, roast, herbal, pepper, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Light herbal bitterness and bourbon/oak spiciness on the finish. Lingering notes of dark fruit, pear, apricot, red apple, caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, bourbon, toasted oak, coconut, light vanilla/toffee, peat smoke, herbal, pepper, and yeast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Great complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity yeast, dark/bready malt, bourbon barrels, and light earthy hop flavors; with a great malt/bitterness and bourbon/oak spiciness balance, with zero cloying sweetness after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from bitterness and bourbon/oak spiciness. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/grainy, fairly tannic, and lightly silky/sticky balanced mouthfeel that is good. Pretty thin feeling for the ABV, but not bad. Mildly increasing warmth of 11%, with no barrel booziness. Overall this is a delicious BBA scotch ale! All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity yeast, dark/bready malt, bourbon barrels, and light earthy hop flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to sip on for the big ABV. Very rich and complex, with great balance between yeast, malts, barrels. Great barrel presence and integration, without being boozy. Only real complaint is with the body/mouthfeel; but this was really enjoyable, and a spot on style example otherwise.

 

 

Unknown vintage; drank 7/9/15 @ the Yarchives.

Poured from the bottle into a glass.

Purple/brown rust appearance.

Huge khaki head which quickly dissipated; decent lace.

Oak, black pepper & vanilla notes in the nose.

Medium thick, creamy mouthfeel.

Vanilla, black pepper & butter flavors; faint booze heat emerged as this warmed. Smooth & dangerously drinkable given the a.b.v., this was a nice surprise.

Color of a dirty penny.
Aroma is peat, oak, caramel and toffee. Taste follows. It has a great big boozy finish which is required here. Compares favorably with Backwoods Bastard.

Cant see the age any more but this must be around 2-3years old

The worst looking beer I have had to date. . TONS OF SHIT floating around in this one.

Smells delicious. .mild sweet malts burns sugar and burbon

Tastes like a beautiful BA aged scotch ale

Feels great.. but the insane amount of sediment floating around detracted mentally

Overall really good just wish it did not look so gross

Even though this beer has been made since 2012 this is the first time I ever seen it. Now in a 12 ounce format it was very affordable at 4 bucks a bottle.

A - The only issue I had was the beer was almost flat very little head to speak of and very murky dark brown. Still for almost 12% I let this slide.
S - Not too intense bourbon on the nose slight vanilla and caramel malts with some smoked peat and oak.
T+M - Wow that's smooth not sure how awesome the base beer is but the barrel really took hold of it and made it something amazing. Very little burn and a good amount of bourbon warmth. Taste is fairly sweet caramel malts, vanilla and oak with a good helping of bourbon to boot.

Overall I liked both the Bourbon RIS and this beer but this one gets more points for being so smooth and so high octane. I personally never even seen "Pipers Scotch-Style Ale" which I assume is the base but I will be buying more of this if I see it. Bourbon barrel age done right.

 

 

 

Forget chocolate wet dream Czar Brew Russian Imperial Stout. Commando Scotch style ale aged in oak bourbon barrels at 11.9% alcohol is a pleasant surprise for "rock 'em sock 'em" robots who can handle deep & nasty "gruel" in the vein of Straight To Ale's Laika & Unobtanium.

Too many of these 6 week & partial barrel aged blends & Goose Island crap cater to the Lite weight crowd. At least you can't see through Commando with a good hazy look up against bright light.

Commando satisfies the special ops operative.

I have discovered that one of the common scotch yeast strains that commercial brewers use I do not like one bit. The base and the barrel are both a huge mess. I didnt get far into this bomber

 

This pours a murky brown color with a slight head. The aroma is full of oak and is boozy. The taste is sweet, malty, and extremely well-balanced. The aging in bourbon oak barrels add a nice depth to the taste to the brew that isn't very powerful. Very nicely made that seems a little under-rated to me.