Anniversary Redux - Port
Kane Brewing Company

 

A concept beer! Double-barrel aging! Kane anniversary strong ale is a blend. The beer pours dark with little head, and not terribly full-bodied. The first taste is bliss--you taste the fruity grape port, which morphs into a long cocoa mid-taste and aftertaste. Nice long chocolate finish. Unfortunately, after the first sip or two, the cacao overpowers the port, leaving you in a purely cocoa world. Still tasty, but losing the port part of the blend made this a good, rather than a great beer.

**
11/25/2020

Bottle to snifter. Prepping for Thanksgiving.

LOOK: Deep dark black, small tan head, turbid reformation, poor retention due to body .
AROMA: Coffee first, then deep dark fruit and oak follow.
TASTE: Also a small sip of coffee leads here, and then the port takes over. sweet and sour grape with waves of booze and oak. Late dark bittersweet chocolate washes away the light pucker from the tannins of the port/wine/grape/oak flavors.
FEEL: Heavy, very full bodied, minimal carbonation (as expected with body). Silky smooth. Touch of astringency with port barrel flavors; the tannins are felt as well as tasted.

A very unique blend of dark beers and I would say "special" except that every dark beer than Kane puts out is special; which of course means that none of them are truly "special", but just awesome. (Except ANTEAD which is actually eSPECIALly awesome.)

But this is really good.


**

Pours very dark, minimal head despite my aggressive pour. Nice chocolate aroma & port wine. Flavor is big in the chocolate and port wine department. Really neat that all these flavors are from the different barrels it was aged in with only a cocoa nib addition. Has a different texture that most of Kane’s barrel aged beers - I would describe it as tangy, and this is probably from the port barrels. Overall a great beer, really showcases the depth of Kane’s barrel program. glad I bought a few.

1/12/20
750ml bottle dated 9/29/19
4.25 rating

Nose is boozy and sweet but good. Taste has more oak and chocolate and a little less wine and booze. Thick and smooth, overall a very good old ale type beer.

Pour is glossy black building a moderate but uniform tan head settling to a thin film and ring, but... ya gotta pour the whole bottle out, probably into two glasses, because a lot of the chocolate settled out to about the bottom sixth of the bottle, muddling the body to a dull brown-black. It's worth it though...

Smell is supremely chocolatey. Nibs, whole cacao and milk chocolate bar with hints of Raisinets and port.

The softly medium-full body is cut by a fine crisp carbonation bringing forward more of a semi-bitter toasted cacao that pairs well with mature semi-sweet port notes. Hints of dark fruit and caramel intermingle with light accents of nougat and drying oak before a semi-dry and warming swallow, exhaling baker's chocolate. More nutty roast develops as it warms.

 

Forget the cake. Kane Brewing is all grown up! Demanding more than just sweetness and booze from their beer, they now demand savory, complexity, smoothness, maturity, rusticity and refinement. And they got all that in their Anniversary Redux, Port Edition.

As nearly expected from its port barrel aging, the beer pours an ominous, gentlemanly and tawny dark brown, nearly mimicking dark roast coffee in its appearance. With a dainty necklace of foam that floats the top, the ale swirls with the lavishly sweet and savory scent of maple, chocolate, sherry, woods and coffee. Then to taste, the ealry palate is slathered with a generous coat of toffee, caramel, maple sorghum, molasses, chocolate and roasted macadamia for a deeply malted but decadent richness.

The sweetness swoons on the middle palate before slowly transitioning into an ultra savory taste of barrel aged soys and sauces, madiera, sherry, port and condensed red wines. Spicy, boozy and warm in its balance, a nearly tart flavor follows with the strong sensation of red grape, black cherry, blackcurrant, blueberry and dates. Earthy and tar-like in taste, sweeter hints of tobacco and leather wrap up an oaken and vinous session set in a sweet and savory setting.

Full bodied and lightened a bit only by its vinous tartness and its spicy wine notes, the beer reads like a lighter, less roasty stout on an extended aftertaste of port wine, chocolate and sticky toffee.

Incredible aroma from the port barrel aging. Solid stout beneath that. I couldn’t wait to age this, but I suspect it will age very well if you’ have the discipline.