Maiden 2018
Siren Craft Brew

2018 bottle (though bottled Feb 2019) stored at cellar temp of ~60-65 F.
Pours out a somewhat muddy/ murky brown colour with essentially no head to speak of, even with vigorous swirling.
Aroma has lots of caramel, brown sugar, dark fruits and a definite vinous/port note - boozy bread pudding.
Taste is sweet - vanilla and caramel raisin bread pudding - boozy heat with hits of port, a touch of red wine, and a somewhat earthy bitterness at the finish and a bit of oxidation sherry.
Mouthfeel is relatively full with some boozy sweet heat on soft carbonation.
Vacillated on this between good and great - as warmed leaning to great but at least very good.

Bottled, presumably bottle conditioned and perfect for tonight’s conditions
Pours a dark rum coloured body with with good tan head
Aroma is harsh lime, crystallised fruits and sherry
Flavour is burned sugar caramel and grapefruit candy

 

Siren Craft Brew 'Maiden 2018' @ 11.0% , served from a gold waxed bottle
A-pour is auburn from bottle to glass with a small dissipating tan head leaving a minimal lace ring along the tulip
S-sherry , port , red wine , booze , complex barley wine
T-smooth start , flavor full swallow
MF-mild carbonation , full bodied
Ov-small enjoyable bottle of barley wine , should be put in the cellar
prost LampertLand

L- Deep ruby chestnut, clear, pours with 1Cm light tan fine-bubble head, later clears to lacing.
S- Somewhere between clear hints of sherry and port. Considering it's 11%ABV it's not the beast of a scent I'd anticipated it might be.
T- Wow, it's interesting! Prominent to me is a barrel taste somewhere between 'hard rum' and fortified wine. It's pungent for sure. Now I recheck the details* I see the 'hard rum' is likely the result of Bourbon barrels also being incorporated together with rum ones.
F- Rich in a rum-doused Xmas pudding kind of way, clearly high ABV%, pungent. Good carbonation in the mouth.
O- Different, ZERO out of place (assuming you get the spirit/wine barrel aging process), perfect for winter. I can't imagine you would want to (or indeed could!) drink this in much quantity, but as a repeat occasional-treat it's a fine thing to me for sure.
375ml bottle. Bottled on 20/2/2019. Bought direct from Siren for home delivery.
Crown-cap sealed over with a gold waxy/PVC substance that was quite a fiddle to remove. When taking off the metal cap I realised why, the stell crown cap is designed for higher than normal pressure I suppose. You remove it, it comes off with quite a pop and a PVC insert under the cap that projected down into the neck becomes apparent.

*From the siren website:
'Maiden 2018 has a beautiful aroma of caramel, almond and oak with some fruit notes, giving way to flavours of vanilla, raisin, spice, sherry, nuttiness and a delicate hop bitterness. It drinks smoothly with a soft mouthfeel, warming sensation and a long, complex finish.
It looks like this:
18% Bourbon Barrels
21% Rum Barrels
14% x Red Wine Barrels
14% x Banyuls Barrels
4% x Sauternes Barrels
29% x Fresh Maiden 2019
It’s worth noting that this blend isn’t as simple as ‘Red Wine Barrels’. For example, there were several red wine barrels available, and each had different notes and flavours. The same for the bourbon, rum etc.