Velvet Glove (With Bourbon Soaked Oak Chips) | Iron Fist Brewing Company

2.99/5  rDev -6.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Black pour, minimal foam. Boozy aroma dominates all other aspects.

Taste tons of booze, oak chips were too girthy. Tastes like those homebrews where they just dump a bunch of liquor over cubes with too much surface area to liquid ratio. This was more iron fist than velvet glove.

Base version > this

 307 characters

3.75/5  rDev +16.8%

3.5/5  rDev +9%

3.22/5  rDev +0.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25

Deep black pour into a snifter glass at Churchill's Pub in November. Small head on it, I dunno what the difference head formation wise is when a beer is barreled versus soaking on chips. Aroma, wow, this was boozy, kind of enveloped all the usual roasting that stood out from the base beer. I guess I'd see it as a downgrade in the aroma department.

Taste, again, boozy, the rough edges of the oak chips are harsh, it really feels like they dumped some bourbon in this to get the abv up, to give the booziness a real taste perceptibility. Just not well integrated I guess. Chocolate takes a back seat to alcohol. Prune like notes jump out moreso than chocolate, coffee or malty roastiness. I think the body is a little thinned out in this version too.

I think we've all heard (well history students at least) the expression of a velvet glove over an iron fist, this one was mostly iron fist for me, very little velvet glove.
I'd take the regular version any day over this one. Too boozy, which is typical for when chips are used in my experience. Not impossible, but I suspect the amount of booze and oak used was just too much to have a nice meld.

 1,158 characters