Constant Sorrow
Country Boy Brewing

 

 

 

Where the freshness on IPA consumption is paramount but the aspects of barrel-aging requires patience among beer makers and drinkers, the fine line between how much hop character to preserve versus how much barrel character to absorb is fully exploited with Country Boy's Constant Sorrow.

Gleaming with bright amber and golden hues, the strikingly clear beer builds a creamy white lather that billows over with rich caramel, nutty and toffee scents with a backdrop of stone fruit, citrus and butterscotch. The early palate is slathered with succulent malt sweetness with creamy marshmallow and caramel apple.

Its middle palate is more bitterly balanced as the sweetness begins to quiver and the fruitiness rises. Apricot, pineapple and nectarine pull from the malt and barrel sweetness and develop into a spicy, piney and resinous bittering power to claim IPA status in the end. With the barrel's influence contributing its own caramel, vanilla and toasted oak brightness, the hoppy flavors are well supported and rounded.

Full bodied and creamy, the beer has an intangible drinkability despite is syrupy texture and formidable lingering sweetness. Peppery and warm in finish, the last refute of muddled pine needles and citrus peels outlast the malt and barrel for a moderately crisp and characterful beer.

butterscotch, caramel apple.
marshmallow,
stone fruit- apricot nectarine, pineapple

Super excited to try this. 750 ml bottle into a New Belgium snifter. Hazy golden pour, and settles a vibrant, deep amber in the glass. 2 fingers of sticky, bubbly white foam on top. Great retention throughout the remainder of the beer. Interesting aroma - more like a sour than an IPA. I get pears, peaches, apricot, sour grapes, and paw paw fruit. Very sweet/sour smelling with no aroma of pine or hops. Faint barrel notes but not profound at all.

Upon tasting, I'm met with a very dense, syrupy beverage. Very creamy and frothy on the palate. This beer has the weight and mouthfeel of a barleywine. Taste wise, it's very different, but amazingly good. Sweet, over-ripe fruit (banana, pears, peaches, grapes, paw paw) along with strong notes of caramel. Defined bourbon notes near the finish, but it's very well balanced and not overpowering at all. Only a slight alcohol burn on the finish. Like many of CB's BA beers, this has the flavor without the astoudning booziness.

Overall, this beer is great. It's tough to describe, though, as it's nothing like a typical IIPA, being barrel aged & whatnot. It's almost like a BBA scotch ale-ipa-barleywine hybrid. Hard to describe, hard to find, but damn tasty. The guys at Country Boy never fail to amaze me with their barrel aging program. Makes me proud to be from Kentucky.

For those taking notes, this beer is Knotty Pine aged in oak Bourbon Barrels.