A Deal With The Devil - Triple Oak-Aged (Gold Label)
Anchorage Brewing Company

 

Dark brown body, somewhat sludgy, brown ring. More boozy and rustic for the series with rye, bourbon, caramel, molasses, and toffee starring, minor cocoa and barley support. Taste is even boozier, rye, charred barrel, molasses, tootsie roll, and caramel, all meld into the toasty oak and barley. Feel is boozy and has plenty of snarl from the barley and rye, thicker but not too heavy. Not as refined as others in the series

 

2023 gold-waxed bottle will black and gold label. label says 22.28% abv. poured from a gold wax 375mL bottle into a SP 10yr whiskey glass. pours chestnut or mahogany with maroon-tinted, somewhat see-through edges. it has a super quick-to-fade dark khaki colored foam head but it looks so still in the glass after the foam has disappeared. massive whiskey on the nose. there’s also chocolate, toffee and vanilla too. taste is whiskey, caramel, vanilla, light chocolate and dark fruits, oak and more whiskey. thick, full mouthfeel. definitely has a nice carb to it, especially on the finish. before that it drinks almost like a port wine. looks like one too with it’s shiny caramel-colored body that creates legs as it runs down the glass. very bourbon forward. sweet too but definitely balanced out (and then some) by the barrels. lots of dry oak in the finish of the flavor and mouthfeel. this one cuts deep.

Drinking: Pours a rich, amber brown, with an active head that quickly disappears. Sits black in the glass, with a thin ring of grayish brown bubbles.

Aroma is absolutely epic, especially after it warms and opens up. It’s the vanilla from the crème brûlée but with the burned sugar on top. Touch of coconut, rich stewed dark fruits. Smells like absolute heaven.

Flavors of rich grade B maple, coconut, molasses, black cherry, cola, burnt sugar and a vanilla finish. Super balanced, with a bit of a syrupy finish. If anything, it’s a tad too sweet, but the 17% is present, but hot enough to balance.

I wish I had the people (or the liver) to drink all 2022 ADWTD variants in one sitting, but this was supposed to be the best. It’s an absolute beast, and the nearly perfect personification of what I want a barrel-aged barleywine to be.

 

From a recent tasting of the 2022 A Deal With the Devil boxed set (plus the full color label bottle to complete the vertical.)
The best barrel treatment in the 2022 set.
Is it worth tracking down the wooden box set to try this beer? No. The other label colors are just as good, if not better.