Irish Goodbye
Roc Brewing Company

this is a cool beer, brewed in collaboration with resurgence and wagner valley, they call it an imperial blonde, but at 6.9% abv im not sure i agree with that, but it has coffee, whiskey soaked oak chips, vanilla and lactose to it, and its mighty tasty and complex! the whiskey oak component is light, as is the vanilla, these are accents in the aroma and the flavor, but important and distinctive ones that serve to give some depth to a pretty simple malt base, and to balance and soften the edges of the coffee, which is earthy and roasty and bitter here, the beer is far more complex and well rounded with them than it would otherwise be, they fill in the cracks really nicely. the coffee has a cool chocolate character that is allowed to be fairly forward in here because of the minimal grain base. i know its a little strong for a blonde, but there isnt a ton of flavor to the malt, light honey picked up on by the lactose and vanilla, but its simple for sure. the coffee then kind of leads this one for me, its fresh and delicious. the flavors are diverse here with all the additives, but it comes together uniquely and successfully. i was pretty stoked on this, as were the others in my group when we visited the brewery. creative enough and not in your face with any of the extras. well done!