A Deal With The Devil - Double Oak-Aged
Anchorage Brewing Company

 

This didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Still a very good beer, but the price tag sets you up to expect something truly exceptional. It pours a deep brown with a medium beige head. The aroma shows caramel malt, dried fruits, raisins, toffee, vanilla, and oak. The flavor is malty, sweet, and rich, with the alcohol barely noticeable. Overall, it’s well made—but for me, not worth the premium price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2023 Blend - purchased April 2023 - refrigerated since.
Pours a dark brown, pushing to black with plum like highlights at the edge of glass - a minimal short lived light brown head.
Aroma is a blast of bourbon soaked raisins, brown sugar, dates, oaked vanilla, and toffee - boozy raisin bread pudding, hint of chocolate, and hard to deny the evident alcohol.
Up front is boozy and sweet on the palate - vanilla, brown sugar, bourbon infused raisins and dates. The toasted edges of sticky toffee pudding with an oaky bourbon glaze continue the sweet warming boozy flavour.
Smooth and rich full mouthfeel - again warming booziness with soft carbonation - lovely alcoholic sweetness with rich flavours lingering.
Pricey indeed (north of $100 CDN), but certainly worth the experience.

Review: 2299
Name: A Deal With the Devil Double Oak
Brewery: Anchorage Brewing
Location: Anchorage, AK
Style: Barrel Aged Barleywine
ABV: 17%
Canned: Unknown
Date: Dec 19 2024
I thought since today is 31st and the last day of the year, I was going to celebrate with A Deal With the Devil. This beer is 2299. I am using a tulip glass and serving the beer at 50 degrees. The pour created a frothy, airy, one fingered tan light tan head, with poor retention. The quick dissipation left no lacing on the glass. The color is dark brown with Mahogany hues, charting at SRM 30, and mostly opaque. The appearance of the beer is average, I would like to have a longer lasting head.
Nosing the glass, I smell caramel, vanilla, bourbon (lots of bourbon), oak, char, toffee, alcohol, figs, date, light floral, orange peel, dried stone fruits, and plums. Smelling the beer, I am admiring how the beer has all this different aromas, yet nothing is overpowering. I also smell chocolate, light roasted coffee, tobacco, earthiness, toasted sugar canes, toasted bread crust, malty sweetness, and light smokiness.
Sipping the glass, I take a moment to savor the deliciousness of this Barleywine. The flavors start with the bourbon and the barrel aging, I was not sure if the double barrel aging would add too much oak flavors, but it somehow is finessed into the Barleywine with care. Flavors of bourbon, light smoke, orange peel, caramel, toasted wood, and vanilla started dancing on my palate. Then the massive malt complex with toasted cereal grains, roasted malts, malty sweetness, toffee, mild chocolate, toasted bread crust, and light coffee mingle in harmony with barrel aging. As flavor deepens on the palate I notice floral, toasted sugar cane, floral, molasses, toffee, dried cherries, plums, dates, raisins and figs brings a lively sweetness toning down the alcohol.
The mouthfeel is chewy and coating, finishing warm. The body is heavy and has low carbonation.
I was unsure if putting down a mortgage payment for this beer would be worth. Yes the beer is fantastic and maybe it should be a once in a lifetime event for any beer lover. As I savor the last drops of this beer, I am reminded I have another bottle for another day.

2020 version (black wax on can), enjoyed over a series of ~3-4oz pours throughout the day.

Look: First pour results in a muddy brown pour with hints of burgundy. No head formation, with the top of the beer covered by a dense layer of oil. Additional pours don't return the muddy look, though transparency is still heavily obscured.

Aroma: Powerful & boozy. It offers up deep chocolate, toffee, and dark fruits. Oak and char draw some focus away from the underlying heavy barleywine notes, though barleywine notes shine through the heat a bit more as the beer warms. After the beer has warmed from fridge temp to ~50f (guesstimate), it smells like booze soaked dark fruits, molasses, and oak, with the potent alcohol much more reserved.

Flavor profile: Booze soaked toffee, fig, dark fruits, and cherry. The cherry note is really odd and disrupts the flow, thankfully this note fades away as the beer warms. As that cherry note fades away, molasses, caramel, and dark fruits appear in its place, with each note accompanied by an echo of bourbon, barrel, and booze.

Mouth feel: The beer is certainly 'full' feeling, but the thickness lands more in the medium-thick territory. It is as though the density and gravity of the boozy alcohol note has stamped out the thickness, thinning it just a touch like some sort of liquor as opposed to a grain heavy barleywine. Effervescence is light.

Overall: to be blunt, this was disappointing right out of the fridge - thankfully that all changed as the beer warmed. A pour or two of this beer were enjoyed near a kerosene heater, funny, as this beer could probably power that very same heater. Pretty remarkable, though after finally trying it, I would say it falls short of being an 'end game' beer for me.

Served in a 15.5oz Spiegelau tulip from a 16oz can.

2022 version poured from a 12 oz bottle in a snifter. Booze and oak. Not as much caramel or toffee sweetness that I enjoy in some of my favorite barleywines but this is quite solid.