House Ale - Barrel #1 - Batch #5
Foggy Noggin Brewing

Poured into a Dogfish Head pint glass. Pours a medium coppery amber with a light patchy head that dissipated to a ring around the glass. Aroma of biscuit malt, light oak and a hint of grassy hops. Flavor is earthy biscuit malt, light oak, lightly bitter with English style hops. Medium bodied with good carbonation, which is a relief after the tepid head. Although this has the profile of a traditional ESB, with very English malt and hops, there is an interesting and different earthy, woody, almost woodsy flavor that sets this apart. Advertised as a unique barrel fermented ale, it delivers on the promise. The flavor is moderate, as expected from the style and the oak barrel influence is also not overwhelming. Interesting experiment. It is offered as a beer to age, and I'm not detecting an intense enough body to this to expect it to be a long term ager. I would expect aging in the oak barrel itself might bring out some interesting flavors, but further aging in the bottle seems odd for this style. I will be interested how this develops over time both as an active, changing barrel fermented ale and reports on aging bottles. Extra points in flavor for the mild, but oddly complex flavors for an ESB.