The Snow: BA Elijah Craig
Community Beer Works

Mucho thanks to micada for this 500ML bottle topped with infernal, rubbery green wax. About a pound of it. No need, brewery, no need.

The pour is black with minimal head that collapses into the beer but for a slurry fringe. Good thing I don’t drink the smell, ‘cause this is weak bourbon & nothing else except a vague sweetness.

The Snow: Elijah Craig Barrel brings an earthier, rawer E. Craig than I know. Or perhaps that’s the base beer. Either way, there’s an earthy, almost smokey quality up front before the booze hits with a subdued bourbon undertow. Mid-palate is roast, mild bitterness, finishing with a dry slab of oak. I’d have been OK with a 12 ouncer.

Nice beer, but the smokiness doesn’t fit & I could use more barrel. Still, good brew.

After having a Transient Bubba blend 1 BW aged in Elijah Craig 18-year barrels for 40 months: The Snow aged 30 months in 12-year EC barrels. Interesting to compare the two albeit different brews. Poured cold to a small snifter, it’s pitch black and offers only a minimal ring for a head. Aroma is now distinguishably Elijah Craig with unexpectedly a stone fruit fragrance. First sip is slightly sweet and dry, bringing the aroma’s EC barrel and stone fruit essence to it. At the end, there is a distinct nuttiness, which is also an entirely unexpected flavor, but it seems to fit well enough. The 9.9% ABV makes it approachable, though it seems a bit heftier. No alcohol burn or warming. As with the Thin Man AJ aged 36 months in Blanton’s, my opinion is that longer aging (30+ months) starts to create a “wet wood”element to the flavor. It’s almost a type of sweetness, with a distinct heavy quality. Honestly, I think that The Snow is a chameleon. The base version, the bourbon barrel version, this Elijah Craig version are all vastly different despite a common base. Maybe like the snow, no two flakes are alike.