The Great Awakening
Breakside Brewery - SE Taproom

collaboration with lost abbey, so heady! cool to get to drink this on tap too. its a neat strong ale barleywine type, a blended beer with much of it in barrels, some spices added, huge dried fruit notes to this, almost seems fruited although i think its all from the malt. there may be some stout blended into this too, its dark in the glass, darker than most barleywines, deep brown, reddish in the right light, and not as viscous as anticipated, very little head. it smells awesome, some whiskey and fruitiness hit right up front, fig and date, brown sugar and maple sweetness there too, some vanilla and the oak from the barrels, port wine character too, some nuttiness, autumnal to me, boozy too. the flavor is fruit forward with some whiskey and wine notes, dates and dried cherries, rum and coffee layers, some roast and even light smoke to this, plenty of oak, and a bit more sweetness than it needs. its weirdly complex but also kind of quick, like all the interesting character hits at once, and the rest of this is just kind of sweet and boozy, its not spaced out in a progressive way or anything, and that doesnt really change with temperature. the malt base is cool, its rich almost like a belgian quad without the belgian yeast, concentrated like that. neat beer, not quite as epic as i thought it would be with lost abbey involved, but something quite different in this style space. been loving hard on breakside of late!