Shenandoah Oak Barrel Aged Millennium Ale
Shenandoah Brewing Co.

2007 vintage bottle courtesy of Matt7215. Medium brown with a bubbly head and significant lace. Initially a chocolate donut, and then a controlled sourness, with caramel and sugar, and wood. Good balance, like an old age and not like the sahti. A unique one.

2007 vintage.

I didn't know this was a sahti, but it does make sense.

A: Hazy amber-brown, light tan head, little retention, good lace.

S: Very woody, berries, brown sugar, bread.

T: Very woody, brown sugar, booze, grain, slight nondescript fruitiness.

M: Well attenuated, moderate body is smooth with a drying alcohol finish.

D: It's a sipper.

This is a separate beer from the old one that was brewed back in 2005. This has been barrel aged and made recently available. I was lucky enough to pick one up in a trade recently and was thrilled to be able to try something new. This is apparently not widely distributed, in fact I had never heard of it before. The 12oz bottle had a simple design, mentioning that it was a Flemish Sahti style ale, and was decanted into my Rodenback snifter at cellar temp.

Appearance - The pour was rather uneventful to be honest. A very bright copper colored amber was presented in front of me. No head on this one at all, which was a bit shocking, there was nothing at all to be found, no lacing, no carbonation, nothing. Very strange. Nice clarity and the light shining through really gave off a nice color for sure.

Smell - The aroma was highly spiced, with a noticeable oak aroma to it. Hints of honey and caramel were prevalent and a type of mead like smell almost. Hints of bourbon coming through now as well, really very interesting smell, very sweet with some light earthy undertones.

Taste - The flavor was more of the same as well, lots of honey coming through almost immediately, which was quickly followed up with a nice touch of all spice. Hints of clover and more honey coming through. A noticeable hotness with the alcohol as it is not well covered up at all to be honest. The finish had some tones of grass in it, some hints of grapes, and more of the honey and mead like taste.

Mouthfeel - Very syrup like, this one was very thick with an almost cough medicine type consistency to it. Little to no carbonation was evident here and the overall feel was a little flat. As it warmed though it did get a little better.

Drinkability - It was good enough. The alcohol could have been better hidden, however it was not insanely hot either. The palate fell a little flat, and it was a touch unbalanced in the sweetness department, but other then that it was pretty good and I could have had another.

Overall this was decent, there are much better barrel aged beers out there, but this was ok. A solid effort and it shows some creativity. I would have liked it to have a little more depth to it, but still fairly decent overall.