Stiff Upper Sip Bourbon Oak Aged English Strong Ale
4 Mile Brewing Co.

Rich brown/mahogany undertone in color with almost no head. Toffee and caramel
dominate aroma. Same flavors with tons of oak and bourbon character on the sip.
Nicely toasty but not overly bitter or dominating. Beer is on the thinner side
with prickly carbonation. Overall, a solid offering would buy again if in BC. I
see this pairing well with bread pudding. It gets a 89/100.

Appearance - Pours a chestnut brown with three fingers of foamy off-white head.

Smell - earthy and leafy hops, bready malts, caramel, bourbon woodiness, vanilla, toffee, and hint of dark fruits (raisin, plum).

Taste - Earthy and leafy hops followed by the bready malts. It quickly goes into the bourbon woodiness and vanilla. The bourbon overpowers everything else which is a shame. In addition, the mouthfeel could use some adjustments.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with light carbonation. Finishes sticky with the strong notes of bourbon lingering.

Overall - An English strong that had some promise in the aromas. The heavy emphasis on the bourbon in the taste was disappointing as all the other elements were lost in translation.

Pours a deep amber, with a solid two fingers of head. Break is slow and the result is a few islands of foam and some lacing.

Smell is wood and malts. I find this one disappointing from the smell perspective. It seems pretty blah.

Flavor is led by wood from the oak aging. I have never tasted oak so close to the smell of it fresh cut. Otherwise it's a malt forward taste, with caramel and cereal malts.

Feel is lighter than I would have expected for the style. Carbonation is bordering on agressive. Finish is woody and dry.

I had expected a bit more from this. The style is one I quite like, but this beer did not live up to that style. The flavor had oak, but it was like it was sawdust added rather than bourboned oak. I really wanted to like this, but in the end, it's a miss.

650ml, gold wax sealed bottle - the only thing that resonates with me is the part about going well with leftover pizza, which l will soon be indulging in.

This beer pours a clear, dark red-brick brown colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, rocky, and chunky beige head, which leaves some decent Continental Drift lace around the glass as it very lazily sinks out of sight.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, a bit of biscuity toffee, some muddled black stone fruitiness, a bit of wayward son yeast, and some plain earthy, musty, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet, grainy and bready caramel malt, simple holiday toffee squares, ethereal 'barrel' notes (maybe a hint of vanilla and wet woodsiness), a still hard to differentiate dark fruitiness, a bit of earthy smoke, and more understated leafy, weedy, and somewhat soused-up floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite active in its overwrought frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and mostly smooth, with perhaps a small alcohol intransigence not making nice with the locals here. It finishes off-dry, the base malt pretty much the only lingering game in town.

Overall - yeah, the 'Bourbon' character in this offering reminds me of my dear departed mom's adage regarding cheap chicken noodle soup (it tastes like the chicken just walked through the broth wearing rubber boots!). Not a bad English Strong Ale, but not a particularly good oak-aged English Strong Ale, FWIW.