Barrel-aged Red Lager
Last Best Eatery & Brewpub

biboergosum from Canada (AB)

3.64/5  rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

12oz glass at Last Best's nice new digs on 11th Ave in Cowtown.

This beer appears a clear, copper amber hue, with a thin cap of weakly puffy, loosely foamy, and well bubbly ecru head, which leaves a some hanging snow rime lace around the glass as it duly falls away.

It smells of slightly edgy red wine-soaked barrel, bready, doughy caramel malt, faint earthy yeast, a wisp of benign smoke, and neutered leafy, weedy, and musty hops. The taste is grainy, doughy pale and caramel malt, light red fruity Canadian wine barrel staves, a growing biscuity toffee character, and more leafy, floral, and grassy hops.

The carbonation is quite soft and beguiling, supporting a gentle frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight for the style, and generally smooth, with a meek creaminess arising as things warm up a tad. It finishes on the sweet side, just, as the malt carries on, the red wine essence becoming ever more ethereal, and the muted hops blending into the background.

Not the best barrel-aged example I've yet come across, as the second fill nature nearly guaranteed that. Which is a bit of a shame, given the stocky amber lager sitting underneath it all. Worth a try, overall, especially if they re-up the wood, and that's your thing.

May 27, 2015