French Toast Barreled Wooley Swamp
Country Boy Brewing

 

The 7th Annniversary celebrates a full return to CBB putting out killer BA beers. This 100-bottle release totally delivers on the name with a flavor bomb.

On the nose, flavor, finish, and quite a while afterwards, you will know this is a maple beer, but it never becomes cloying nor bitter. The cinnamon has faded from being almost a partner to the maple to now being a great accent that never gets in the way. There's a touch of booze, but the barrel notes are subdued.

When you want to cheat a dessert onto the breakfast itinerary, you break out the sweet and savory French toast entree option. And apparently you can do the same thing with beer. That's what the Country Boys are hoping to do with their anniversary imperial stout that's simply slathered with French toast flavor.

French Toast Barreled Wooley Swamp pours with a tawny, dark brown color, bleached from the barrel aging. Its terse foam character simmers with the scent of maple, toasted nuttiness, coffee, cocoa and understated nuances of straight Kentucky whisky. Decadently sweet on the tongue, the flavor of maple, caramel and butter pecan are apparent in the very first sip.

And as the flavors splash against the middle palate, its lush and robust flavors bring about a complement of charred woods, dark roast coffee, bittersweet chocolate, toasted pecan and an overall roasted nuttiness to ride along with the praline sweetness. Heading toward a late palate of bitter woodsiness and whisky spice, the flavors balance the sweetness and sultriness by bringing a rummy heat with coconut and vanilla nuances.

Full bodied but cut easily by the brazen booziness and the bitter spices. Its maple influence is equally as apparent in texture as it is in taste. Pleasantly cloying, the beer is an easy share with multiple people and best reserved for after dinner digestives. Its long draw of maple keeps the taste of French toast first and foremost on the tongue.