Rio Salado Redzilla
Rio Salado Brewing Company

 

Sampled on cask at Papago Brewing. Aged in bourbon barrels. 10% abv.

This wonderful barley wine poured a clear, gold amber color with white foam that settled to a vey thin coat. The smell was very nice, with notes of vanilla, caramel, and bourbon. The taste was sweet and fruity with flavors of caramel, bourbon, and dried fruit (raisins). The mouthfeel was creamy and as smooth as silk with medium-full body and low carbonation. There was a hint of bitterness in the finish, and it was somewhat warming. This was an excellent barley wine, and the touch of bourbon flavors from the wood barrel aging really were a plus. Very nice!

Served on cask at Papago Brewing.
This beer has been aged in a second hand Jim Beam barrel. The aroma is of super buttery oak. The taste is not nearly as buttery as the nose would suggest. There is an oaky vanilla presence here as well. The beer is lightly sweet, fruity, not very bitter (the hop presence is overall fairly muted). The mix of the thick chewy malt and the vanillin from the oak contribution is really well done. This beer really needs to be sipped slowly, there is just no way you can drink this quickly it is just too big & too savory.

This beer is really good, and it is just big enough to stand up to the huge oak contributions.

Cask @ Papago Brewery

Well what do you get when you age some excellent Barley Wine in an Oak Jim Beam barrel, then pull it off and put it in cask? "Une bière magnifique", one with the flavor of the Oak and a great bourbon in its own right Jim Beam, as I often say a “Real Hoot"!

The color on the pour a translucent sparkling brown, the head light tan and unboastful in size with the resultant lace a satiny sheet to caress the glass and seal it from sight. The nose “Oh Hell”, how can I accurately describe in words something you must smell to fully appreciate? The richness of the Oak, with the delightful aroma of the bourbon, backed by the sweet malt earthiness, vanilla and a slight hint of hop floral spiciness, and bet your “Booty” ladies and gentlemen a modicum of fusel alcohol to cap it all off as the French say “Se Le Magnifique”. Front is malt sweet with the top thick and creamy rich to the palate. Acidity good-natured and the hops benign in their spiciness, but the real spotlight is on the Jim Beam and Oak flavor with a residual alcohol bitter-sweetness that last to the very end, a true “Winter Warmer” to be sure, oh please nice folks at Rio Salado and Ron the owner of Papago Brewing you great “Beer Guy” you tell me you will do this again next year.