Ember King
Tommyknocker Brewery

From recent notes on a trip to Boulder, Colorado. Poured into a medium sized, shaker style kitchen glass. Pours a very dark mahogany brown with little light transmission and a one finger, dark khaki head with great retention and lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, nuts, cocoa, oaky vanilla and whiskey; inviting. Flavor follows, with lightly to moderately toasted malt, cocoa, whiskey, oaky vanilla and hazelnuts. Medium bodied with light to medium creaminess. A good looking, aromatic and full flavored nut brown ale. The barrel character is moderate by barrel aged standards, but adds a distinct and winning whiskey and oak character to this malty brown ale that approaches a porter in flavor depth. This was probably my favorite beer of my trip to Boulder. I'd like to see this one locally.

From can. The whiskey note is there but it definetly takes a back seat. I thought the beer was a little thin but I commend this company for stepping out from the crowd and doing this. I didn’t taste much of the nutty flavor that is often found in this style. Overall a beer worth trying. I would have again

part of their prospector series, i think its rad they put this innovative and delicious beer in a can too! its an imperial version of their nut brown, run through some sort of technology that i didnt quite understand, but it apparently increases surface area exposure to an added element, in this case whiskey barrel char, thus reducing the need for longer contact time and also supposedly increasing the intensity and forwardness of the flavor. i would like to know more about this technology and how it works and what its full potential is, but for now i just let the results speak for themselves. there is a ton of char and whiskey on this, high vanilla, a maple note, rich cocoa malt, plenty of alcohol and residual sugar, definitely a big progression from the original nut brown, but a beer that i think is quite distinctive, intensely barrel aged tasting and smelling to me, with the whiskey as forward as the beer and the wood right there with it. its not overly complex, at least in that these flavors are familiar to me in this way, but it doesnt really need to be, and this drinks rich and slow and fancy. interesting process that id like to learn more about and see used again in a different beer. this was a treat, a high point of recent tommyknocker beer. definitely get into it if you have the chance!