Barrel Aged Biere de Miel
Jester King Brewery

special edition of this once popular base beer, but i have not seen in around anywhere in some time, i assume they are still brewing it though? ive had this bottle awhile, its a blend one from 2019, still seems bright and fresh and even clean for jester king, definitely in its prime window. i was especially stoked on this because its brewed with watermelon honey, which sounds so sexy, but i have to say that while the honey profile is certainly unique, its hard to place the flowers these bees pollenated specifically, and while there might be a little lush melon rind bitterness to this if i go looking for it, its not something that really defines the beer, more of a generic herbal honey, i get things like anise hyssop and bee balm as much as anything else, a little lemongrass and tea thing too, really light and bright. blonde beer in the glass, pretty aroma of honey and herbs, the oak is light here, a white wine and soft vanilla note to the barrel, but it seems more woody than influenced by whatever was in the barrel before this brew. its cool that the honey flavor is so robust and obvious through the whole drink but also how dry this is, almost no residual sugar at all, and this drinks fast and brisk. the usual jester king funk and tang fermentation characteristics are here, maybe oddly a little younger and lighter seeming than expected for a bottle thats three years old, but its still obviously them. awesome carbonation really springs this to life, the bottle conditioning is textbook, as is so often the case with their beers, and overall this is wonderful, subtle as the wood is, its not radically different from the original. gorgeous packaging here too, we were all super impressed with this one, watermelon character or not!

 

 

Would I buy this again? Yes. This was definitely an underrated offering from JK. While it isn't too often I find something I don't like by them, I would take this over Snorkel, Petite Prince, & Noble King. Granted those are different styles, I just found this one to be more well rounded and drinkable vs. those other options which I also enjoy.