Quandary - Rum Barrel-Aged
River North Brewery

Reddish brown with a thin head of cream color. The nose is caramel, toffee, corn syrup, molasses, and boiled sugar cane. Taste is woody, grass, molasses, corn, whiskey with bitters, mace, malt powder, and cream soda. This beer puzzles me. Things I think are there disappear. Things I can't pinpoint suddenly burst forth. There is almost a buttery quality to the mouthfeel. I like this beer, but I want to like it more. I just can't figure it out. (Found my old notes on this one)

 

 

I'm somewhat stunned by how well rum barrels have brought out the fruity, bready characters in Quandary - even when cold, it's incredibly rich and full of boozy notes. I'd love to see more breweries throwing their quads in to rum barrels - bold move, and the product is delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revisited October 21st, 2021

Partially cloudy dark copper body; lively carbonation with a thin, light khaki head. Rich aroma; caramel and dark pitted fruits; musty wood. A rather unpleasant phenol taste; band aid; some caramel flavor; burnt rubber alcohol note. Heavy body; smooth and slick on the palate; semi-dryness.

I had high hopes that this latest version would be much better based on the looks and smell, but the taste really burns things. A rare miss from this brewery.

Poured at 49.6 ℉; Vintage: 2021, Release No.: 5, Mo. In Barrels: 8, Cases Bottled: 99

---------------------
Original October 19th, 2014 Review and Ratings:

3.5 3.25 3.75 3.5 3.5 (aggregate rating: 3.54)

Review bottle data: none.

Reddish, copper-colored body with a decent off-white head. Smell comes across more like a cheap red wine scent than a rum; red wine vinegar; very faint deep, roasted malt scent. A varied mix of plum, molasses, brown sugar, vinegar; somewhat sour; green apple. Medium body with a smooth and low-key residual sugar baseline; somewhat dry finish.

Perhaps it was my particular bottle, but the rum effect came across more like a soured red wine. There was still a strong enough presence of rich and robust malts suitable for a quadruple styling and even a hint every so often of a rich rum influence with some sips, but there was an undeniable sourness and tartness to things that really detracted from what should have been a more malt-forward experience. Fair enough yet hardly stunning...

 

so much rum on this, but the body seems way lighter than the original batches of the base beer quandary that i am perplexed by how different it is. mahogany in color, its gorgeous, with a short off white head and a lot of bubbles, no problems there, the rum has spice and vanilla and sweet oak notes in the nose, but the flavor the rum takes on a more mild thing, more elegant, more simple. the vanilla stays, but it interacts with the grain in a fun way, where the caramel and bakey thing meets the bigger sugars and the fruit tones in the belgian yeast come out. the rum gives sweet spice, its robust, so much more than the quad on oak i think. river north though really needs to do some new beers, instead of putting the same ones in new barrels, its getting a little old, even when its new, maybe its just me, but lets reinvent stuff in the brewhouse, not the barrel cellar...

edit: just had this on tap, and it has not aged well. gone flat and sour, and was totally lacking in rum character anymore. the grain seemed almost decayed, and i only finished the glass because of how much i paid for it. loved it the first time around, but this was rough. keeping original scores here though