Europe '72
5 Seasons Westside

Appearance: Served a murky-looking, dark brown body with a small, ivory-colored head that, while diminutive, has some spirited bubbliness to it.

Smell: Scantly tart-scented red wine leisurely soaking plump plums and grapes with hints of honey wine and sparkling cider as well as dark-toned bready, caramelly malts.

Taste: A start of deep, dark breadiness splashed with a semi-dry mead and coupled with fine fruits (skins on) and a light-handed dose of spices. Bright, shimmering tartness imparted by the wine barrel. Small sliver of smokiness. Late-breaking inclusions of brown sugar and dark caramel sauce. Sip of Martinelli's Sparkling Apple-Marionberry. Finishes out semi-dry, invitingly warming, and with little final blip of tartness.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium-high carbonation.

Overall: Very nice! These guys really need to lose kegs more often.

Huge thanks to gford217 for this rarity. 750ml caged and corked bottle poured into my De Struise glass... A slight gusher as this pops. Huge carbonation, about 10 fingers of head for about three ounces of beer. Pours a dark copper with lots of amber. The head is medium tan, full of lots of bigger head bubbles. Good retention and full lacing. A touch to carbonated but otherwise looks great... The aroma is a touch light, difficult to pull a ton out. Very vinous mostly, tannic, red wine, spice, oak, and uniquely oranges. A slight sour barrel note. Interesting, I like it... The taste is even more vinous, the most vinous beer I've ever had. Almost mirrors a red wine in feel and tannic taste. Oak, red wine, earth, musky, bretty tart...The feel is a bit off, tannic like red wine but this is overly carbonated too bubbly for me.

Pretty interesting, a bit too winey for me with too much carbonation. Otherwise, this is pretty darn good.

750ml bottle.

Pours a deep mahogany that shows copper through the edges with a massive fluffy cream-colored head that shows excellent retention and lacing. Very rocky underside.

Aroma starts the red wine barrel - oak, grapes, light spices. Then there is a different type of fruitiness, much sweeter with lots of esters coming through and some chocolate malts. Maybe some vanilla and leather.

The taste also starts with a big tart red wine blast and then a little bit of chocolate covered raisins and Belgian yeast. Finish is dry and vinous with some oaky spiciness.

The mouthfeel is dominated by the barrel and is very dry with strong carbonation.

This is a very complex Belgian dark that takes on a ton of the red wine character of the barrel. One of the driest and least sweet versions of the style I've had. Another excellent Belgian from Crawford.

Pour: dark brown nearly black, with a quickly fading head that leaves a slight lacing across the surface

Nose: i get the Pinot cask immediately, fruity & malty nearly a port character, quite enticing.

Mouth: almost velvety malt, nearly jammy as you'd expect with the Pinot Noir barrel involved. the sugars from the malt seem still pronounced an earmark of homemade origin? light hops just after the middle. really damn drinkable.

This was my first trip to the 5 seasons, and i was delighted by the three offerings i tried. while their cask pricing was very reasonable, to get the 'good stuff' will take some of your bank roll, but hey life's too short to drink shitty beer

Bottle at the brewpub. This is their 1972 aged in Pinot Noir barrels.

Pours an opaque brownish-tan color with a one-finger off-white head. The head recedes into a wispy layer on top leaving solid lacing.

Smells great. Dark malts with good amounts of lively concorde grape aromas. Underneath the pinot noir aromas are good amounts of dried plums and lighter amounts of raisins.

Tastes similar to how it smells. Sweet and dark malt flavors up front with mild amounts of sweet molasses kick things off. A combination of pinot noir barrel - sweet and earthy concorde grapes with hints of oak - and dark fruit flavors come in shortly thereafter. The earthy hop character from the non-barrel-aged version is almost non-existent but does make a brief appearance before a crisp ending.

Mouthfeel is very good. It's got a smooth thickness with grainy carbonation.

Drinkability is also very good. I finished my glass very quickly and could easily have another.

Overall this is one of my favorite beers from Five Seasons, although I have to admit I'm a big fan of the character gained from pinot noir barrels. Very much worth a shot.