Massive! - Highland Scotch Barrel-Aged
Gigantic Brewing Company

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a dark brownish orange with a quarter finger khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dry caramel malt, well dried dark stone fruit, light molasses and raisins; mild smokiness. Flavor is dry caramel malt, raisins, dates, black licorice, olive, faint apple juice and Scotch whiskey; mild smokiness in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. An interesting barreled barleywine that has the bones of English style with caramel malt and dark fruit, but there are wisps of lighter fruit and touch of hops like the American style. The fruit tastes well dried with little fruit brightness. The Scotch influence is light with decent light smokiness, but little peat or sea iodine, which matches a Highland style Scotch. I'd like a little more aggressive Scotch character, but this is a fine, deeply flavored barreled barleywine with Gigantic's usual great base malt. Enjoyable and perhaps more approachable for those who don't like deep peaty Scotch styles. I'll buy any variants of Massive!, they are all great.

2022 vintage

I'm fairly certain this is the only Barleywine I've ever seen aged specifically in scotch barrels. The smokiness from the scotch could work really well here so I'm certainly intrigued. This is also my first beer of the Massive series, which I've heard many good things about. Let's dive right in

Pours an opaque light brown with a finger of creamy light tan head that slowly fades to a ring and leaves minimal lacing

It really isn't super smoky in the nose, but there's some interesting stuff going on here. I'm picking up on aromas of molasses, charred oak, pickled olive, brown sugar, burnt caramel, black cherry, cacao nib, peat smoke, earthy scotch, and poached pear

Things still aren't smoke forward in taste, but there's still these weird notes and they come out even more here. On the front end of the sip I'm tasting brown bread, burnt caramel, toasted oak, pickled olive, leafy hops, earthy scotch, pear skin, raisin, milk chocolate, and light vanilla. The swallow brings notes of burnt caramel, charred oak, pickled olive, blue cheese, molasses, sharp whiskey, black pepper, raisin, molasses, and light brown sugar

A medium full body pairs with gentle tingling carbonation results in a smooth beer. Finishes mostly dry with a boozy heat

This one is really interesting. It's not exactly scotch-y, but there's these interesting briny and salty notes that keep things nice and weird. Maybe the Islay scotch will have more smoky notes