Dark Matter - Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Aged
Barreled Souls Brewing Company

 

 

I am sampling a cellar temp 500 ml bottle poured into my snifter. Picked up at the brewery in October 2023. Bottled on 4/3/2023, almost exactly a year ago!
The beer pours a dark black coffee color and no light passes through my glass. A dense creamy tan head of 3 cm foams up and fades to a sturdy surface covering a few minutes after the pour. There is very dense lattice when I swirl or take a sip from the bottle.
Aroma is some roasted malt and dark chocolate with a good bit of bourbon and some fusol booze. No hints of hops on this beer.
The first sip reveals a medium to light body with smooth texture and fine tingly carbonation. There is only the faintest coating on my palate after each sip. Drinks a little lighter than anticipated on the physical features.
Flavor is some roasted malt, and a good hit of bourbon, definitely not sweet bourbon, but a little black peppery bite in there. I do get a little molasses note, but the pepperyness lingers and there is some warming on the swallow too.
This beer is pretty much what I expected it to be. Some dark malts, some bourbon, some heat. Works for me on a Thursday!

Serving: Bottle
Bottled: Apr-3-2023
Consumed: Oct-7-2023

Pours very thick, very black with a healthy--though short-lived--cinnamon head. The nose is roasted nuts, toast and dark chocolate up front. The longer you smell it the more comes forward, red berries, dates, some fruity bourbon sweetness, and a blend of aromas that reminds me of jerky (hint of umami smokiness).

The flavor is along similar lines but it's rounder and sweeter. Holy fuck. It too gets more and more complex the longer and slower I drink. To the point that it's kind of unlike any giant boozy beer I've had before. It hits everything but heavy char. Roasty, toasty, coffee, chocolatey, fruit, boozy, barely, coca-cola-y, spicy, woody. I could go on.

This a very good beer that benefits immensely from coming to near room temp and being slowly savored. These kind of beers are far from my forte, but ones like this are just great. I want to keep typing but don't know what more to say except that I really like that the barrel and the bourbon are there but in many ways they are not there, so well are they melded into the beer as a whole.

Damn thing packs a wollop!

4...4.5...4.5...4.25...4.25

From a 500ml bottle, dated 04/03/23. Served in a spiegelau tulip.

Pours oak-black with burnt caramel highlights and a finger of fizzy chocolate-colored head. The head lasts maybe a scant 10 seconds, leaving a narrow collar and a barely rousable film of slippery oily lacing.

Nose is sweet, rich, boozy. Aroma of brown sugar, bourbon and vanilla cake. Dreamy!

Taste is much less sweet and bourbon-rich than anticipated and, in fact, unexpectedly sort of thin and tannic. Tasting watery dark perked coffee and a tart puckery berry juice. There’s a sort of uncooked rice? dry and grainy quality which I think is how my brain is interpreting the taste and feel of the barrel.

Feel is drying and tannic, thin bodied relative to the style with ample super-fine tingly carbonation. The tannic quality and slight tartness makes my mouth clench just a bit.

Overall, a mixed bag. The nose is divine and I could totally lay my head down in it and take a nap. The flavour and mouthfeel could never live up to the promise of the aroma. The brewer’s description states that the beer aged in the barrels for 10 months and 12 days - for me, the tannic woodiness was probably 11 days beyond optimum.