Barrel Aged AKA
White Birch Brewing

Batch One: 12/8/09

Appearance: Pours a clear mahogany; no head is generated

Smell: Tart apples and vinegar

Taste: Overwhelmingly acetic, with sourness dominating the palate; a vague hint of caramel and candied apple is somewhere underneath

Mouthfeel: Medium to full body with no carbonation; puckery

Overall: Just terrible, not much else to say

22oz bomber brewed in 2009 and sampled today.

Appearance: Pours a murky root beer with little to no crown, retention, or lace.

Smell: Caramel and toffee mainly.

Taste: Orange cream over sour green apple and lightly vinous notes.

Mouthfeel: Thin side of medium bodied with little to no carbonation.

Overall: Either age has done this beer no favors or it has all the right ingredients but totaled up into a dud despite that.

Shared by JLindros.

A - Poured into a Kate the Great tulip a nice clear honey toffee hue with a thin halo.

S - Aromas of light fruitiness, caramel, apples, toffee, quite nice.

T - Taste is sweet almost toffee like, gentle apples, barrel sour notes. Super deceiving of a flavour here very pleasant of a new Apple candy.

M - Mouthfeel is rather pleasant with light carbonation.

O - Overall I enjoyed this beer with nice bourbon notes and apples.

 

 

 

 

I received this some time ago in a trade with drazamatazz (thanks for the hook up!). Review is from notes taken on 7/22/2011 and poured from the bottle to a snifter.

Appearance: Pour is a dark, coppery color with a lot of ruby and murky caramel-ike colors to it; starts with a short 1/4 finger fizzy head that fades immediately to nothing other than a pencil thin ring around the surface; body is murky, just a touch cloudy;

Smell: Tart and acidic cherries; butterscotch (perhaps a touch of diacetyl); bit of alcoholic vapor; nose is inviting enough.

Taste: I think it's pretty decent, and likely deserves better than the "B" average that it's received thus far; the tart and acidic cherries (perhaps a bit of green apple as well?) blends with caramel and butterscotch malts; touch of whiskey booziness in there and a stringent oakiness lingering well into the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: Body is of medium weight, and it comes across the palate as oily and slick; carbonation is nearly non-existant (I would still say it's carbonated better than a Lost Abbey beer, though!); a moderately thick, semi-dry sticky coating is left on the roof of the mouth; belly is left quite warm from the nearly 12% ABV and high acidity to this one.

Overall: Definitely a sipper and not something I would seek out on a regular basis, even if it was available on a regular basis. The flavors are good, but the sweetness becomes a bit cloying after a bit and the acidity wears on the tummy. Still, though, it's a nice treat and would be a good one to share. I'm curious as to what the base beer is for this.

Thanks to Andrewinski1 for sharing this Bad Larry. Bottle number 172 of 224 poured into a tulip. The color is pretty nice. It's a pretty vibrant ruby red. It's really murky though and has little head and thin lace. I smell this and it reminds me of cherry cough syrup that is thick and buttery. The aroma is kind of rounded out with an oaky finish. Honestly just not pleasant. The flavor seems to have a bit of an identity crisis. It starts of with tart cherries and that smooths out to a bit sweet quickly finishing with a butterscotch flavor. It's not really bad, but I'm confused by it. The mouthfeel is thick and buttery (I know by now I feel like I'm just repeating myself with this). I can drink this, but I'm not really going to enjoy it.

Bottle 172 of 224. Poured into a White Birch goblet. Murky reddish brown with an okay head that disappears quickly.

There are a lot of aromas. I get a bit of pomegranate and cherry medicine. Some nice malty sweetness like a nice barleywine is noticeable, but not prevalent. A distinct buttery aroma is also noticed; it isn't too strong, but I was admittedly worried about it so I notice it.

The taste is mildly sweet and finishes with slight heat and a bit of crispness. A small hint of tartness is noticed; and it plays well with the sweetness to a degree. To be honest this is all over the place and not really focused.

The mouthfeel is a little cola like, a little sharp. The body is very very light for the ABV. Honestly, this exceeded my expectations, so maybe I'm a little biased. I might be able to finish my half of the bottle.

Pours a one finger off-white head that fades quickly, leaving traces of lace. Hazy dark amber color. Yeast left in bottle. Light-medium carbonation and medium bodied. Tart nose. Flavor is tart and yeasty, dry sour apple finish. High ABV is totally hidden. Expensive - $15.25 for a 750ml bottle from Chase Street Market & Deli Plymouth, NH. Bottled 6/9/2010, bottle 5/192.

Poured from an oxblood colored, wax sealed 22oz bomber into a St. Bernardus goblet. Special thanks to Vanillamike for this from a trade from a while ago.

Bottled: December 8, 2009
Batch: One
Bottle: 195 of 224
ABV: Alc. 11.9% by Vol.

A: Pours a clear, ruby tinted brown, much like a Bourbon. Teeny tiny off white head disappears almost immediately, but not before leaving a few random splotches of lace. Carbonation is exceedingly lazy. The second pour, with all the swirled sediment, looked like a pot of dark melted caramel.

S: Interesting to say the least. Right off the bat I was greeted with aromas of berries, vinegar, butter, vanilla, and bourbon.

T: See above. Add to that tart white grape, toffee, butterscotch, caramel, and tangy red wine.

M: Loads of bright unripened berry. Very vinous type mouthfeel. Alcohol is pretty restrained.

D: Considering the abv, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy to drink this was. I'd love to see another batch of this (if they make another...) show a little less berry, and a little more oak, vanilla, caramel, and coconut.

Bottle 102 of 224 shared at woodshop 5.1

Poured a amber brown with orange highlights and left a decent amount of sticky lacing on the glass. Intresting nose consisting of caramel malts and barrel oak booze alongaside berries and mild vanilla. The flavors were unique sour and booze that was made up of the caramel malts like the nose. Berries figs apples and booze accents with raisin and grape notes. The beer was medium body with a fair amount of carbonation that had a sweet sour and boozy finish. Overall it was a experimental offering that was quite intresting on the palate and the nose. Maybe that was not suppose to be the outcome. Regardless of the strange characters it was a good beer.

Thanks to Ryan for sending this one my way.

A: The pour is a dark copper color with a medium tan head on it.

S: Tons of sweet butterscotch with extra emphasis on the butter. A bit of vanilla, green apple, caramel, and more butter.

T: A very strange flavor. Again, lots of sweetness and butter up front. There is a seemingly misplaced tart fruit flavor underneath, primarily of green apples and maybe some raspberries.

M: The body is somewhat thick and mildly syrupy with a low-ish level of carbonation.

D: Pretty disappointing here. I keep getting my hopes up for these White Birch beers, but this is another disappointing effort.

A rare barrel-aged beer, what could be better? Bomber shared by bring. Thanks, Barry.

The beer resides in my glass a murky but mostly clear amber. It has minimal carbonation and no head forms.

The aroma is odd. It's fruity, a bit tart and very boozy. Raspberries and green apples with caramel and bourbon. The alcohol is sharp and the tart berry character seems out of place, possibly the result of a minor bacterial infection.

It has a syrupy texture with flavors of raspberries and toffee. There's a bit of oxidation, tart fruit, iron. The lack of carbonation gives this a very syrupy and lifeless mouthfeel. Finishes tart and fruity, faintly metallic. "Meh" pretty much sums up my feelings toward this beer.

Bomber thanks to bring. Ok, so this is rare and barrel aged. Does that mean it's good? Well, a lot of people seem to think so.

Pours clear medium brown with a small off-white head.

Aroma is slightly metallic but otherwise good. Caramel and some dark fruits, maybe cherries and plums.

Flavor is caramel, toffee, raspberry, and a fair amount of tartness. Some slight barrel notes.

Just a little flat and boring on the palate with medium body.

Decent overall, but White Birch continues to underwhelm in my opinion. Average-plus drinkability.

22 oz. bottle tried 30 Jan 2010. #159/224.

Trade from mutterfudder, thanks!

Served in a 0.4 L Steiner Pils snifter. Small rapidly disappearing head. Medium carbonation. Cloudy brown color. Yeasty, appley, brown sugar and cherry aroma. Apple and yeasty to start, with vanilla, bourbon and cherry tartness. Also some raisins and oakiness. Boozy warm finish. Medium body. After an initial burst of carbonation beer becomes pretty flat.

Apperance is meh but otherwise a nice beer.

Bottle # 167 of 224 of batch one, bottled on December 8, 2009. It's too bad it was a one time thing (so far), but now I finally got around to reviewing it.

A: A nice loud pppssst is heard as I pop the top, hacking my way through the wax. A light fizzy head forms but barely covers the beer, and fades very quickly. It's a hazy and foggy muck brown colored, almost raisin color.

N: It has some nice sweetness to it, with quite a bit of bourbon, oak, and a touch of vanilla. Some strong malty aromas, with some bourbony fruit, and even a sweet nougat aroma. Some brown sugar, a little molasses, hint of caramel and more vanilla coming out. Not too sweet smelling either surprisingly. No real boozy aroma as well.

T: Starts somewhat sweet and creamy actually. Sweet malts, thick almost syrupy malts with more sweetness, a hint of brown sugar and molasses but neither are actually present in the beer, just hints from the malts. Lots of juicy flavors actually, with a hint of fruit. A good share of bourbon as well, and tons of wood. Some oak flavors, woody esthers, which seemed to blend well in the beer. More vanilla as well. Somewhat sweet, but no really boozy flavor, with just a hint of alcohol presence. Thinner than I expected too and not very syrupy. Some raisin too.

M: Medium body, much thinner than expected, no real booze or syrupy feels, and very low carbonation.

F: Still somewhat sweet, with a little malty flavors, more raisin and hints of molasses. Lots of wood again, with woody esthers, oak, and overall wood presence. More bourbon lingering as well with some of that fruity bourbon presence, and lingering vanilla. Much lighter than I expected and semi sweet, but not syrupy, and hides the alcohol VERY well, being 12% and barely noticable. Nice bourbon, wood, vanilla and a little fruit. Tasty, and I think it already tastes like it has some age and will age even better. Could have used a little more carbonation too, and perhaps thickness in the mouth.

inflatablechair brought this over to a recent tasting... Thanks a TON Sam!!! You're good people. Didn't write down the bottle number damn it.

This was one of the most debated brews that we've ever sampled as a group... There were tons of talk and many trips to the complectron to get any sorta info we could about it.... in the end, I'm pretty sure everyone liked it but was left scratching their heads.

Deep amber brew .. slightly hazed... nice head and minimal lacing..

Nose is incredibly unique.. red grapes with caramel... tawny port.. and some whaffs of vanilla.

Flavor mirrors the nose ... really fruity.. tannic... so very weird.. but good.. some odd sour plum essence comes to mind.. vinous and sorta figgy at the same time.. I wrote down later "tropical fruits", but I don't remember now exactly what I was thinking... alcohol shows with warmth.

medium body with good carbonation.

"grapey" was brought up a bunch... again.. weird, yet interesting enough to keep us from moving on to another bottle for a long time. Thanks again Sam!!

Now.... If you're reading this.... Send the Boise peeps another bottle .... we want to do this again. :-)

4/4/4.5/3.5/4.5

Tasted @ Woodshop...

App- light orange with brighter orange hue.

Ar- very strong boozy notes, a bit of a sour note stands out.

T- sour, I think this bottle was OXIDIZED (damn what a shame), bit of brbn. I dont get much but sour brbn.

MF- Thick, tart, some carbonation.

D- oxidation made it a drain pour.