Fourth Dementia (4D)
Kuhnhenn Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

Pours a near-black until the last couple ounces, when it turns into a muddy brown with a burgundy-tint. Head is a finger of beige foam. Aroma is raisins, dark fruits, caramel, and toasty, caramely, bready malts. Faint bourbon and barrel come thru as well, but don't do enough to raise the temp of the aroma. It's potent, but balanced. Flavor profile packs a little bit more than the aroma, bringing raisins, dark fruits, caramel, toffee, and chocolate with roasty, caramely, and bready malts underneath. Faint whiskey underneath, which brings a little heat wave, but nothing that disrupts the balance. Mouth feel is medium-thick with a silty texture. Effervescence is soft. Alcohol flattens out the final third. Overall, an easy going 13.5% Old Ale that manages to display whiskey along the way, without being unwieldy. That said, it's still fill and fun.

Served in a 15.5oz Spiegelau tulip from a 12oz bottle. 2018 version. Consumed/reviewed 10/11/2022.

 

 

 

2013 vintage; consumed on 2/9/2022

Pours a clear, deep, ruddy chestnut brown body capped with a slight finger of fluffy, off-beige foam; solid head retention leaves a thin layer of intermittent cap, a thin, creamy collar, and virtually no lacing holding to the walls of the glass.

Aroma is entirely dominated by and centered around twangy raisin coursing throughout; an underlying dusting of bakers chocolate details figgy esters and faded caramels over time, while an increasingly luscious and jammy raisin holds focus.

Taste opens to raisin juice accented with toasted fig, burnt black bread, and molasses, with distant chocolate and wisps of nutty undertones progressing to the mid-palate as dark fruit jam peaks; brown sugar born from a residual sweetness phases into intermittent booziness amplifying subtler dark fruit esters as they linger through the finish.

Mouthfeel features a rounded medium body with a composed, moderate-high carbonation, lively yet rounded while dispersing to slick, semi-syrupy, even textures over the mid-palate, and eventually drying as a distant char balances a moderate warmth through the finish.

Approaching a decade in the bottle, this old ale has refined and embraced an undeniably one-note character, sparking depth through sheer focus on a singular profile development to showcase a concentrated display of age across a quality base; an increasingly decadent sipper by way of a stalwart longevity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blind review:
12 oz bottle poured into a wine glass

A- Black with a small mocha head. 4

S- Dark chocolate, molasses, bourbon, char oak, dark fruits, some toffee, slightly smoky. 4.5

T- Molasses, toffee, some dark chocolate, dark fruits, oak, some bourbon, touch of smoke. 4.75

M- Smooth, full body. 4.5

O- This is excellent, easy to drink and very well balanced. 4.5

After thoughts:
This is a 2 year old bottle and I’m getting an oaky quality to this, even though it is not the barrel aged version it does have a lot of flavors I tend to notice in barrel aged beers.

Rating from notes. Consumed January 2014. "Good in small doses due to aggressive sweetness. I enjoyed my sample but would never be able to finish a full bottle. Worth trying for the novelty though."

 

 

 

Murky brown, some foam.

Malty.

Syrupy sweet, brown sugary, could use some char/smoke flavor. High ABV is hidden. Maybe the faintest bit of tart. No complaints here, hits all the right notes.

Medium bodied.

 

 

Appearance - Pours mahogany brown with a nice thick tan head that settles to a thick ring. Great lacing everywhere which surprised me for the ABV.

Aroma - Big aromas of fig, plum, oak, bourbon, very mild vanilla. Lots of toffee, caramel and brown sugar.

Taste - Oh lord, much sweeter than expected. Lots of brown sugar, caramel, raisin, fig and plum. Big vanilla in the taste much more than I picked up in the nose. Really a rich sweet flavor, the bourbon and oak come through well.

Feel - High side of medium, great carbonation slightly warming but very smooth and easy drinking for the ABV.

Overall - Excellent beer, I love the taste the nose did not prepare me for the vanilla sweetness.

Look is dark brown and opaque with minimal khaki colored head. Aroma is crazy, toffee, caramel, dark fruits, vanilla, brown sugar, bready malts, and the slightest barrel hit. All the scents show up in the taste. Starts with dark fruits, then caramel, toffee, and brown sugar. The finish is strong sweet vanilla and bready malts. It’s sweet the whole time, but never overly sweet or like a dessert stout. Mouthfeel is pretty thick. Somewhat prickly but also kinda smooth. Overall this is world class amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pours a dark chestnut brown. Small lighter brown head 1/5". Aroma is quite boozy, but it also throwns a dense layer of rum cake malt booziness, chocolate, earthiness, wet wood, tobacco and wet leaves.

Taste takes those smells and puts a warm sherry like presence throughout the first few sips, it takes about 20% of the bottle to get accustomed to this. Molasses and raisins, the unsweetened variety. The amounts imperialized toffee and lesser caramel is not too damn high but it makes you think about it. You're not breathing fire but you can feel some of the heat on your tongue. Has that dense ass brick feel of a loaf of dark bread with booze dumped in the punch bowl.

In the right scene, these can be nice to chew on. A treat, but nothing I'm ever going to want to have multiples of in a sitting.