La Maison du Bang!
Breakside Brewery - SE Taproom

2024 Vintage
Many thx to muchloveforhops3 for this bottle!

A - Dark, dark brown pour that's borderline black with slightly thin, but very dense toffee colored lacing. Nice viscosity on the sides of the glass!

S - Toasted caramel, molasses, Bourbon, toasted caramel, coconut, and some nice boozy spiciness.

T - Oak, Bourbon, Brandy, light spiciness, toasted caramel and toffee, some spiciness, toasted brown sugar, and some underlying apple.

M - Big silky medium body with some pronounced warming in the back of the throat.

O - This is a really nice (and unique beer). Recommended!

drinking breakside beer is always a treat, i truly regard them as one of the best in the northwest, but their barrel program is next level still, so getting into this weird black barleywine was a special experience, a bizarre one from their lineup, 2024 vintage, absurd blend of barrels, bourbon, nocino (which i had to google to learn is a green walnut liqueur from italy!) and apple brandy, wild combination. i think the notion of black barleywine is cool, like its not exactly stout, and this isnt, its got a ton of grain depth to it beyond the usual suspects, and its an amazing vector for these unique barrel treatments, wow. love the roast and espresso character in aroma and flavor, love the bitterness all through it that prevents the caramel and molasses and bourbon notes from making it too sugary, and i like the way it flashes chocolate at different moments, really nice. the middle grains are fruity and bready and english and cooked, raisin and fig, bran and coffee cake, old worldy and rustic even, stewed and concentrated and reduced in a cool way, light smoke here, toffee, maple, and of course all the barrel weirdness that moves from vanilla bean to black licorice, spicy stinky green walnut, dehydrated red apples, apple pie even, white port wine, black pepper and strong fusel alcohol later on. black permanent marker, toasted black walnut, old wet oak, vanilla, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, dark leather, and char, slick not too heavy body for what it is but a ton of alcohol heat. the whiskey is nice with the brandy, these barrels sure play nice overall, want to try some nocino on its own now too! love the concept of this, the blend is way cool, and malt depth is wonderful, and although there is some late astringency and a weird almost chemical permanence on the palate after this, iodine or something, its hard not to be impressed, this is intriguing beyond belief, beguiling and confounding even, and it warms up to be even more expressive. high shine from the bottle pour, perfectly black, short small bubble dark brown head is just a thin ring after a minute, not as leggy and gnarly as expected, stout-like smoothness to this even though its boozy, the fruity apple brandy is there a ton at the end. super original brew here, exactly the kind of thing i expect and adore from breakside! some in our tasting group were less impressed, but these weird barrels make an impact, this is not your standard fare bourbon barrel stout! curious to see how this ages, i could see this being even more absurd in five or six years with some alcohol mellowing and further integration...

22-ounce bottle purchased at Breakside Beaverton. 2024 vintage. Enjoyed slowly in an English-style tulip half-pint.

Look:
Very dark reddish-brown with burnt umber highlights. An aggressive pour raises a skin of peanut-butter-brown foam which quickly condenses to an incomplete ring. You can swirl the glass all you like, but that head isn't coming back.

Nose:
A garden of boozy, spicy delights. Top notes include cinnamon, apple brandy, bourbon, and Beer Nuts. An exquisite dash of licorice. Fig preserves. Cherry cordial. Threads of caramel, oak, and vanilla tie the room together.

Taste:
Everything promised by the nose, and more. Opens with brandy-soaked cherries and ruby port. Follows with toasted nuts and cinnamon, backed by a raw nut earthiness. Apple brandy performs an aria in the middle. (I can remember when the beer was new, and the apple brandy character was very much in the shadow of the bourbon barrels.) Dark chocolate, quince, and dark roasted malt take over seamlessly from the apple brandy, providing a heavy foundation for the next wave of flavor. Spices come to the front: coriander, more cinnamon, maybe a shred or two of ginger. And there's the signature Breakside molasses component you find in all their barrel-aged beers. This time it adds a rich, moist gingerbread character to the proceedings. The long, long finish is fruity and chocolatey, full of bourbon and apple brandy with an assertive nocino undertone. Just superb.

Feel:
Medium-full body lightened by frothy, energetic carbonation. Silky texture with a slightly sticky finish. Plenty of lingering alcohol warmth.

Overall:
Not gonna lie: This is my favorite Breakside barrel-aged beer (which is an impressive conclusion, given the overall high quality of their barrel/blending program). The bourbon, apple brandy, and nocino barrel influences remain distinct, even as the whole blend holds together beautifully. The luscious sweetness is well balanced by a gorgeous spiciness and layers of fruit. Most of Broadside's excellent barrel-aged beers are imperial stouts, but La Maison du Bang! is a compelling argument for further expanding that range into American and English barleywines and beyond.

Poured at fridge temp but allowed to warm for a while. Pours pitch black with minimal head. The nose is full of toffee, bourbon brandy, walnuts, and slight black licorice.

The taste is absolutely crazy. Brown sugar, toffee, brandy, bourbon, walnuts, slight smoke, and a hoppy bitterness that mostly comes through in the aftertaste. A cherry note comes through as well. Really delicious and quite different from other BA barleywines, likely owing to the different barrels used.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied and the aftertaste is brandy, hops, and a bit of booze. Great barleywine overall.

Fobab 2024.