Barrel Aged Quad The Impaler
Thunder Canyon Brewery

This quad is outstanding. It looks dark like bourbon. It smells like a man's beer, it will curl your chest hair with its boldness. The taste is like a perfect blend of Tennessee and Belgium. There is a nice consistency when enjoying this beverage. -Never settle.

 

Sampled April 2011
The beer arrives from the tap with an amber tinged, tan colored, 1/2 finger thick head. The beer is a dark, concentrated amber color, that shows a clear, dark red tinged amber hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells sweet and fruity with caramelized sugar notes, as well as distinct aromas characteristic of candi sugar. Other notes I am able to pull out remind me of figs, toasted malt, molasses and a brown bread whole grain character. Surprisingly, the oak does not seem to play a role in aroma; it might influence the toasted character here that seems to be predominantly contributed by the malt. The nose is more subtle than I would prefer with various caramel / candi notes being dominant; it could use some balancing spicy and / or oak notes to make it more interesting and multi-dimensional

Up front, the beer is sweet tasting with lots of lingering caramelized, candi sugar flavors. It takes a second but the finish has light spiciness to it, a hint of astringency, a touch of toasted wood and a very mild oak flavor. The texture of this beer is very smooth; there is only a hint of carbonation (it is served directly from the barrel) and it seems to drink smaller than sweetness and viscosity would suggest. This is not aggressively sweet, but it is enough so that it accents dark fruit notes that seem more generic than anything but there does seem to be some noticeable prune and dried fig flavors here. Fruity molasses flavors meld with hints butterscotch, both of which are likely contributed by the candi sugar. The finish has a peppery bite to it, a touch of green woodiness and a hint / suggestion of hop bitterness as well as a definite woody astringency that is quite light. The alcohol is pretty well hidden here; as the beer warms, some heat and spice from the oak is noticeable in the finish.

The oak here is very subtle, enough that I would never have guessed that this was aged in an oak barrel, but the oak does add complexity with its spice and toasted woody hints; the base beer lacked this boosted complexity and it really needs this as it would be cloying otherwise. Age has rounded the malt character with suggestions of oxidation adding a needed complexity. This is much more enjoyable than the base beer, raw oak barrel influence though subtle are probably at a perfect level for this beer. It doesn’t intrude and keeps this beer an easy drinking experience; more might add too much astringency and spicy heat that would unbalance the character that this beer has achieved.