Ulysses
Modern Brewery

 

750ml bottle. 2015 edition - consumed Jan 2020. Poured out an opaque oil black color with a small, brown head. It smelled of roasted malt, chocolate, vanilla and oak. Big roasty flavor with coffee, chocolate, vanilla and charred oak.

 

barrel aged 2016 edition, on tap at the hop shop, which is one of my favorite places to drink a beer when i am in town! this is in bourbon barrels, and pours a nice rich looking lustrous chocolate brown color, less head than some, but not flat either. sweet whiskey and vanilla notes to the nose, lots of sweet cocoa and eve licorice to the malt base. really dense and layered taste, tons of chocolate and warm booze, the wood does well in it, but i even wish for more of it, there is a char and a smoothness, but these are lost a little just to the size of it, and more would be better i think, longer ageing, but also you dont want to lose the base beer to the barrel, and they avoid that here, so give or take on that. mild spice in here too, not cinnamon, but something wintery that the alcohol picks up on and highlights. heavy body, tons of residual sugar, brown sugar and molasses flavor with that, long taste after the swallow, some whiskey there too, complex but a little raw and unrefined too. this is cool beer, my first barrel aged offering from these guys, still a work in progress i would think, but a nice foray into the barrel ageing world. i enjoyed this, and have been impressed with modern overall lately!

 

 

Excellent ris. Make more and we will drink more! A great winter warmer.

On tap at the taproom of Modern Brewery. Great space they opened up recently to the public, 12 beers on tap at the moment.

10.5% imperial stout aged in Breckenridge bourbon barrels. This thing is way too drinkable. Great balance of barrel and roasted, chocolate, black licorice flavors. One of their best beers.