Booker's Bourbon Barrel Aged Big Bang With Apricot And Peach (2024)
Barreled Souls Brewing Company

It pours murky brown with some reddish tinting. No visible head but when you swirl the glass there's some fine bubbles clinging to the glass. Lots of liquid cling as well. It does clear nicely once it gets to room temp.

Smell is sweet, malty, and unbelievably fruity. Vanilla and oak, the sweetness is caramel and peach. The fruit subsides a bit, but the first whiff was peach and apricot. The alcohol does make a token appearance.

The first sip is shocking. It is sweet and there's no doubt about the peach and even more so the apricot. I'll stick with a caramel, malty sweetness. The apricot brings some welcome tang. Then once the onslaught subsides more subtle notes from the barrel come in - vanilla (like if needed more sweetness), oak, cherry (huh?) There's some dark fruit - dates I'm thinking. Just at the end there's some resinous hops and a bit of bitterness. In the aftertaste it's an alcohol apricot sensation. As it warms, the OG Big Bang comes out more and the fruitiness hammers the back end if the taste managing to hit some aromatic notes. The barrel treatment kinda floats in the background and says hello once in a while. So it's morphing sip to sip - its pretty cool. There's a bit of fruity sourness/ bitter - like the peach right next to the pit - fortunately not a huge contributor but definitely there.

Feel is thick, sticky, and a bit drying.

Ok...overall...a little mystified but I like it. This is certainly not everyone's cup o' Joe here. It's very different. The flavors essentially keep me guessing as they swap places. That's a good thing because this is huge, carries megaloads of flavor, and it is quite sweet. But I find myself wondering what the next sip will reveal. It's a sipper and probably not a "single serve" bottle.

This one pours a murky and kinda ugly dark brown, with a very small head, and no lacing.

This smells like oak, vanilla, resinous hops, stone fruit, caramel, and lots of bourbon.

This is a really intriguing combination of things that could have clashed in a lesser brewery’s hands. Big Bang on its own is a very hoppy barleywine, and that hop character stills peaks through pretty strongly, even with the addition of stone fruit and the fact that it’s bourbon barreled. There’s a resinous bitterness, but it’s balanced well by the fruit addition. I remember Apricot Big Bang being almost a little bit tart with the fruit there – the fruit here presents as more fleshy and sweet, which helps makes this more delicious in my mind. There’s a lot of caramel, too, and some vanilla and a lot of oak from the barrel.

This is thick, basically syrupy, and a bit heavy on the palate. It’s delicious, but it’s certainly a bit ponderous on the palate, especially as it warms.

This really should not have worked, but it really did.

Sweet caramel malty, fruity cocktail, stonefruit and dark fruity, a hint of all-spice, and a bourbon barrel boozy nose on this one! Taste follows very closely with a stonefruit and hoppy bitter finish. As it warms, the peach and apricot additions come out more...gives a stonefruity tartness on the backend of the swallow. I'm not the biggest fan of American Barleywines, but this is pretty good!