Modem Tones Aged In Bourbon & Rhum Barrels: Coconut Cake Edition
Modern Times Beer

22 oz bomber into a snifter


Probably one of the weaker variations of Modem Tones…I think it’s the rhum barrels more than anything else. There’s a bit of a cloying, carob thing that overtakes the flavors, losing some of that decadent bourbon-vanilla cake aspect that makes Modem Tones such a knockout concoction

That being said, grading on a curve here, this is still an amazing brew. I’d like to try the original Modem Tones with the amount of coconut adjuncts they added to this one.

This one pours a fairly dark black color, with a small head, and only a little bit of lacing.

This smells like milk chocolate, caramel, coconut cream, brown sugar, rum spice, and oak.

This lacks a little bit of the deft nuance that Modern Times is often known (at least to me) for expressing. It’s quite sweet – maybe the demerara (brown sugar, right?) used here just set it over the edge into pastry overload? The coconut and vanilla are tasty but definitely adding a sugary sweetness here. There’s a touch of rum spice, and basically no bourbon character. A bolder and stronger barrel character could have helped strike back against the sweetness here.

This is pretty thick, with no real booziness to it.

This series is usually a bigger hit for me. This wasn’t too bad, just too unbalanced.

Sweet milk chocolate, creamy vanilla, hint of coconut, and a bourbon barrel nose on this one! Taste follows with a milk chocolate malty, hint of rum, vanilla-coconut, and balanced bourbon barrel boozy finish. As it warms, a little more rum booziness peeks out...it starts to dominate the backend and inteferes with enjoying the vanilla and coconut vibes a bit. This is still tasty though and some good dessert!