Aronia Ryewine
Scratch Brewing Company

scratch continues to be one of my favorite breweries out there, and i get more excited to try new beer from them than from almost anyone else. this is a barrel aged rye wine with aronia berries, and its delicious, complex, and as natural tasting and earthy as all of their beers are. it has a pink hue, some caramel coloring, and some viscosity but not a lot of head from the tap. the nose is great, wet new wood, red wine, the tart, almost medicinal astringency of the aronia berries, and a dry earthy rye spice from the malt, with just a little bit of warming alcohol to it as well, beautiful and distinct. the rye really flavors this a lot, its neat, quite the opposite of say a fruited barleywine or other strong ale, as the rye is spicy and dry instead of caramely and sweet, while the fruit is sharp and tangy rather than sugary and juicy, its familiar but so different at the same time, and i really dig it. the barrel ageing is but one of many flavor elements here, not really whiskey, more of a wine flavor to it for me, but that could be the berries showing some of that too. smooth and layered beer overall, easier drinking than it should be at this strength despite fairly minimal carbonation, and a finish thats so earthy, the forest floor in fall, like some of the beers they have done with leaves, it has a little bit of that here too. these guys inspire me like crazy, and its always a treat to drink their stuff. cant wait for great american beer fest when they come back to colorado!!!

As soon as something has "-wine" in its moniker, my head immediately goes to Barleywine. This is certainly a big beer, but it's definitely not barleywine. Brewer says it's a rye malt, which is probably where it gets its spicieness. Poured a cloudy gold into a snifter. Some funk was the first thing that hit me. Back to the menu description...Brett and chambourcin barrels. Fairly light mouth feel. I was in an experimental mood, and this fit the bill nicely.