Fitzcarraldo
Breakside Brewery - SE Taproom

Absolutely intriguing and rich, boozy nose. Dark fruit, bourbon, oak, dry spice, sharp alcohol. Smells rich, potent, and a little bit dangerous.

Bourbon doesn’t dominate the palate, although it’s quite strong on the back half. Nice BSDA flavor: raisin, prune, dark bread, nuts, and a bit of cola. When the bourbon hits, it’s slightly sharp and sour, but also sweet and smooth, carrying a hint of coconut.

An interesting beer that fizzles to near still on first pour, but holds up better after that (washed/rinsed glasses might’ve not been as well done as I thought) I sipped before I sniffed, and it was a very interesting mix of Belgian yeast-driven fruit and bourbon barrel, with the dark malts adding accent. This somewhat backwards fore- and back- ground is quite interesting to me.

Going back to nose, I’m getting spiced apple pie with a few raisins and slight waft of coffee on the side.

Back to taste, the bourbon from the barrel provides the spike, but it’s the barrel itself that provides a bit of the longer draw. There seems a little more of a dark saison vibe to this than an abbey-like dark ale, but that makes it interesting to me.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque in the glass with a thin khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dark and dry caramel malt, raisins and dried plums and bourbon. Flavor is dry caramel and candi malt with some toastiness, dried plums, raisins and bourbon. Light vanilla and cocoa notes. A bit drier and with a slight tartness in the finish. Medium bodied with light creaminess. An interesting and different strong ale; Breakside calls it a dark Belgian style, but it more closely resembles a classic barreled blended ale with a predominance of lighter fruit-forward barleywine, although there is some suggestions of toasted malt. Lots going on here and lighter and brighter than other blended ales. The barrel is quite forward, but that's never a problem for me when it's bourbon. Nicely done. Wish I had picked up another of these.

 

an absurd blended strong ale, packed with bourbon, but regal and nuanced and well refined, another gem from breakside, who always seems to deliver, especially with this kind of thing. its darker than a lot of these, which always seem to be some ubiquitous amber color and syrupy in texture, this may have some stout in the blend, rich and leggy looking in the glass, cool to find this one on tap too! it smells like good whiskey, burnt caramel and vanilla beans, barrel char and wet oak, very mature, but with some neat spice character too, maybe rye in the mix, maybe some belgian yeast pushing through from something in the blend, definitely sexy. i get an almost creme brulee sweetness to it, lots of whiskey all the way through, some honey and maple character too, lots of long boiled grain sugar, barleywine elements to this, dark chocolate and roast as well keeping it balanced, and enough oak and time in it for this to seem cohesive and synergistic and well mapped out. its thick as oil, fudgey to me with the sweetness and the darker grain, and quite boozy, but it works with all the bold flavors and doesnt turn me off from this even a little bit. good complexity and refinement overall, another delight from these guys. barrel heavy, awesome.