No Rules - Rum Barrel-Aged
Perrin Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 ounce bottle into snifter, 2018 vintage bottling. Pours opaque dark brown/black color with a 1 finger dense and rocky khaki head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice dense soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, coconut, vanilla, cream, toffee, brown sugar, toasted oak, rum, maple, marshmallow, fudge, nuts, and brown bread; with light notes of coffee, raisin, fig, herbal, and oak/toasted earthiness. Slight touch of booze in the aromas as it warms. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/roast/bready malt, coconut, brown sugar, and rum barrel notes; with great strength. Taste of huge milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, coconut, vanilla, cream, toffee, brown sugar, toasted oak, rum, maple, marshmallow, fudge, nuts, and brown bread; with light notes of coffee, raisin, fig, herbal, and oak/toasted earthiness. Light herbal/roast bitterness and rum/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Lingering notes of milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, coconut, vanilla, cream, toffee, brown sugar, toasted oak, rum, maple, marshmallow, fudge, nuts, brown bread, light dark fruit/herbal, and oak/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Amazing complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt, coconut, brown sugar, and rum barrel flavors; with a nice roasted bitter/sweet and rum/oak spiciness balance; with zero cloying flavors after the finish. Slightly increasing dryness from lingering bitterness and rum/oak spiciness. Medium carbonation and full body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky, and slightly sticky/chalky/tannic mouthfeel that is fantastic. Slightly increasing warmth of 15%, with zero barrel booziness lingering after the finish. Overall this is an amazing flavored imperial porter! All around incredible complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt, coconut, brown sugar, and rum barrel flavors; extremely smooth and dangerously easy to drink for the huge ABV. This tastes about half as much on the ABV level. Extremely well balanced between rich malts, coconut/brown sugar, and barrels. Perfect integration of barrels, which complement the base beer perfectly. Not overly roasty. Still prefer the regular BBA version, but this was extremely impressive. This was way better than the Scotch(I still really enjoyed); which was an onslaught of Laphroaig peat smoke/brine, that was a bit rough. This is way smoother. A highly enjoyable offering, and spot on style example as expected.

 

Smell: A lot of Barrel this is really Barrel forward. Really oaky, spiced rum, toasted coconut, milk chocolate, vanilla frosting, oatmeal cookies, cinnamon, a splash of maple syrup. It smells sweet like the base beer but with a bigger Barrel presence. The base beer is there in the nose, but the Barrel and spice is really present.

Taste: Right Upfront you get this really nice Barrel presence. Spiced rum, a hint of oak, tons of vanilla, cinnamon vanilla frosting. mid plate the base beer really shows it self. Huge amounts of toasted coconut, even more then the regular. Milk chocolate, maple syrup, fresh baked oatmeal cookies. The beer finishes with more cinnamon, oak, molasses, all well that spiced rum warms the throat just ever so slightly as the beer goes down.

Feel: Medium body, really nice amount of carbonation. The beer finishes pretty dry. A lot drier then the original does.

Overall: This is the original no rules with more Barrel character as well as more toasted coconut and more spice which I'm sure is due to the fact this was Aged in Rum Barrels. The spice is assertive and takes away from the rest of the beer just a little bit. I like the original Bourbon Barrel better and the Scotch version better. Still this is an awesome beer. A 96/100