Double Barrel
Union Barrel Works

 

Appears a dark amber with a frothy beige head that slowly faded into a mild cap. Scattered streaks of lacing are left around the glass.
Smell is of raisins, plums, prunes, dark fruit, doughy raisin bread, mild cinnamon.
Taste is of the aromas with a rich, caramel, molasses flavor coming through. Great flavors in a doubl Vienna.
Mothfeel is full bodied, chewy, fruity, and slick.
A bit of the abv is noticed but that oak aging mellowed this one out. Really unexpected but welcomed.

a: This was a slightly hazy copper color with some golden highlights. It was served to me with a thin, off-white ehad.

s: Plenty of warmth radiating off of this one. Big malty aromas of nutty raisins.

t: I know very little about German styles of beer, but I think this is a much bigger beer than is typical for the style. I had a small sample of this maybe a year ago and all I tasted was heat. I'm glad I revisited this one, it was well worth it. This is still warm, but far from hot. I got flavors of raisins up front while the finish was flowery and a little nutty.

m: Very creamy and hearty.

d: UBW continues to open my eyes to styles I tend to ignore. I would almost call this Barleywine style lager. It was that complex. Inventive and delicious overall.

The beer pours a dark golden/amber color with a thin offwhite head that fades to lacing. The aroma is great. It has a sweet, malty scent that's warm and nutty; very nice. The taste is great as well. It has the best malt flavor of any Vienna lager I've ever had. It's smooth with a wonderful nuttiness to it. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a full bodied beer with adequate carbonation. This is a very good beer. It's got tremendous aroma and malt character. Nice job!

Served as a hazy deep amber colored with modest off-white head.
Smell is more like an IPA, with very strong citrus and piney hops present.
The tastes is also more like an IPA, with the hops dominating over the malt. I also detected a strange taste that I can not easily describe. Maybe almost like a medicinal or iodine taste. Very strange. I was able tget used to it, and the beer became more enjoyable after that, but the taste still lingered.
Finishes with a dry bite, and a distinct alcohol presence.
Not at all what I was expecting. I wonder what the strange taste is?

Tom indicated that this is a Vienna Lager but it is quite a big one. Over 8% ABV and it has some ale like aromas.

Appearance: The look of this beer is spectacular. It is creamy to the eye and in the mouthfeel. Served a dark ruddy brown with a light tan head that lasts most of the duration of the beer. The the lacing. Wow, the heavy heavy lacing; just coated the walls of my glass.

Smell: I was a bit set back by the smell. It has a strangely phenolic nose. a bit of banana peel and hint of plastic with a soapy note. I am hoping this was a problem with the dish washing of my glass and not the beer. The bar tender said, Yes there is supposed to be a banana in the aroma and the glass was clean. So what it that off aroma. May just be a slight bi-product of the yeast needing to ferment at such a high temperature for a lager to reach over 8%. Of that, I am not yet convinced.

Taste: The toasted caramel malty is a pleasant flavor. The thing that stood out was that slightly soapy aftertaste. It really took some time adjusting to it before I could notice a few other fruit elements and not much more. The alcohol did become a player in the flavor as well.

Mouthfeel: The mouthfeel is the feature here. Exceptionally velvety smooth. Soft full feel with a long lasting finish.

Drinkability: The big detractor here was adjusting to the bizarre flavor. It was just OK. My first thought was mild infection but my second thought was the glass ware cleanliness. The third possibility is that banana was intentional and I just didn't really care for it all that much. I am going to go back in a few days and try it again.

Hope this is helpful.
Cheers!