Boughs of Barley 2020: Orange Liquer
Cape May Brewing Company

750 ml bottle. Pours muddy brown with tall, long lasting, creamy, brown head and nice lacing. Aroma is of toasted malt, vanilla, dark fruit, brown sugar, sherry and wood. Body is full, creamy and slightly crisp. Taste is of chocolate, toasted malt, brown sugar, dark fruit, oranges, vanilla and wood. Long semi-sweet finish. Tasty brew.

Cape May Brewing Co. "Boughs of Barley Orange Liqueur Barrel-Aged"
25.4 fl. oz. brown glass bottle, capped and waxed. Simply labeled "WINTER 2020". Sampled on 2 January 2022.
$14.99 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: It's poured a very dark, almost black body beneath a full head of tan foam that doesn't seem to want to settle down. It's almost opaque when held to the light and only a few glimmers of dark ruby can be seen at the base of the glass. The aroma is unusual. Some of the orange liquor comes through, and there's alittle bit of dark caramel to the malt but there's not much more than that. I'd say it's floral though, although it's an orange blossom I'm thinking of. On to the flavor then... it's also quite unique. The orange is there, and it's both candied and fresh, as well as lightly acidic. It cuts right through the maltiness of the quad and stays there until the swallow where it fades a bit. I'm not getting a lot of Belgian yeast character althought there is a definite spiciness to it. What malt is present is darkly caramelish, and hints at chocolate but never really gets there. Well... maybe a little bit of milk chocolate. It does have a similarity to a chocolate covered orange candy for sure. There's some bitterness to it, and that becomes apparent in the finish, eventually drying your mouth and getting it ready for another sip. To be honest though, it's really just the erosion of the malt and the little bit of alcohol that cleans you up. It's full bodied with a carbonation that warms to become airy in the mouth, and then it smoothly passes away at the swallow. It's a really interesting beer that changes a bit as you work through it, with more malt building on the palate and cutting down on the initial intensity of the orange liquor. At the same time, however, it's kind of a one-trick pony. I find that acceptable, however, as it's such a rich, flavorful, and strong beer. It's meant to be a sipper, and so you nip at it and let it linger for some time until it fades, and then you sip it again. It doesn't need to be complex because it's so rich. It'd be very remiss of me to not also mention it as a dessert beer. I feel there's enough to it that you could simply serve it as-is as a stand-in for dessert, but it would probably fare better as an accompanyment to something else, even just sugar cookies, OR as an ingredient in a fuller dessert item. Whatever the case may be, I hope that Cape May is able to produce this one again somewhere down the line. Ahh, I almost forgot... the head has held up remarkably well and I still have a short but creamy surface covering, and there's some nice wide streaks of lace left behind. I think the lacing could be better, especially given the amount of sugar left in it, but the head retention is fantastic.