Four Seasons Of Mother Earth - Autumn 2021
Mother Earth Brew Co.

Review: 2243
Name: 4S Autumn Barrel Aged Old Fashioned
Brewery: Mother Earth Brewing
Location: Nampa, ID
Style: Barrel Aged Old Ale
A.B.V.: 12.4%
Canned: 2021
Date: 08 Nov 2024
I decided to switch back to my cellar and try this beer from 2021. I am using a tulip glass and serving the beer at 44 degrees. The pour created a frothy, creamy, one-fingered head, light tan head with fair retention. The somewhat quick left no lacing, only a ring around the glass. The color is dark brown with reddish mahogany hues, charting at SRM 28, and opaque. The appearance overall is average.
Nosing the glass, I smell oranges, oak, bourbon, cherries, burnt sugar, caramel, toffee, raisins, light char, and a hint of smokes. Swirling the glass again, I notice earthiness, tobacco, chocolate, coffee, molasses, herbal, and bread.
The first sip reminded of an old fashion, bourbon, smoke char, oranges, cherries, and caramel. Sipping the beer again I taste, molasses, burnt sugar, raisins, light char, oak, molasses, herbal, and earthy
The mouthfeel is chewy, finishing warm. The body is medium-plus and has medium-low carbonation.
That beer is heavenly, it taste like an old fashion; however I am still able to taste the base beer. The barrel-aging provides enough whiskey flavor to enhance the overall experience. The beer was much better warmed up, all the nuances and flavors were coming out. A delightful experience.

16oz can from Boise Co-op. Aroma is orange rind, cherry, fruity sweet. Taste is malty, orange peel, a bit of booze. All the elements of the cocktail are there.

 

 

 

this is really super heady this year, one of my favorite beers in this impressive and long running series to date. its a barrel aged old ale at its core, rich and malty and strong and complex, english in some ways, bready, super mature, but then jazzed up like a proper old fashioned, with maraschino cherry and orange zest, and actual bitters, wildly interesting. pretty pour, more head then the style usually sports, a deep mahogany color to it, nice shine, leggy with decent density but also visibly well carbonated. the nose is sweet and boozy, but has a ton of layers to it, wet tobacco leaves, anise, luxardo cherry, bourbon, cherry cordial, raisin, cognac, cigar, vanilla, wet oak, and sweet caramelized malts. the orange part is there too, essential oily and well incorporated. the booze enhances to me, you need some alcohol coming through in an old ale. the flavor is even better than the nose, its impressive how much cherry there is here, how rich it is, black boozy cherry super compatible with this malt build, wow. definitely drinks like a cocktail, lots of body, kind of slow moving even with the bubbles, warms up amazingly well. big cigar, maple, and bitter orange notes here, the bitters and the orange are cool together, and the bitters seems to highlight the wood too, really cool with the whiskey, char, and grain complexity. overall this is a lot, one will do you most of the time, but what a great beer this is, very well dialed in and extremely unique. glorious fall sipper among all the heady hoppy stuff they have on tap there right now!

edit: this is maturing really nicely too, mellowing out on the sweet and the alcohol but staying nuanced and layered and complex, really impressive beer, it almost hits like a cocktail, one of their best from this series thus far, even a year later!