Phenom - Rye Barrel-Aged
Modern Brewery

 

 

 

I have jin989 to thank for my 3800th review, which arrives in a black 12 oz. can with silver lettering. Rye. My love language.

Black. Still as a windless night. The nose is mostly chocolate & sweet malt.

Phenom – Rye Barrel Aged uncoils from its mild nose like a viper. Taste leads with boozy, heady rye that I’m so fond of, followed by strong chocolate, vanilla, honey, with a finish of raw oak. All tightly integrated but dominated by the rye, which makes no sense. Old-school thick, i.e. if I stuck a spoon into it, the spoon would fall over. Correspondingly easy on the palate; I could drink a lot of this.

My first beer from Modern Brewery & it’s a winner. Get this onto the shelves of Minnesota & I guarantee I’d purchase cases of this every year. Excellent brew.

Very little head production or retention, but it's a very clean and attractive beer.

Aroma gives off BA imperial stout from the pour. Up close, it's still swimming in bourbon notes, slightly sharp with red grape and cherry tones, and tons of molasses, vanilla, and chocolate.

Thick, creamy, and chewy on the palate; a joy to savor. Drinks appropriately to the ABV.

On the palate, the rye whiskey really shines and leads the way, with the malt base providing an insanely rich palette of chocolate, vanilla, molasses, cherry, toffee, and honeycomb flavors.

An absolutely phenomenal beer that provides more depth and character than you could possibly expect for *just* being aged in rye barrels.

12oz can from the brewery. Poured out an opaque, jet-black color with a small, light brown head of foam. It left sudsy trails of lace on the glass. It smelled of rye, chocolate, toffee, roasted caramel, oak and vanilla. Sweet chocolate, coffee, rye whiskey, oak and vanilla taste.

poured from a 12oz can into a TG DBA tumbler. pours a thick, deep black with not quite a finger of dark brown foam. reminiscent of voodoo’s aphotic series in its deep, dark black appearance. rye whiskey, oak, chocolate, faint vanilla and caramel on the nose. taste follows with an even more pronounced dark chocolate flavor as well as an oaky dry finish complete with a rye whiskey sting. sludgy, thick mouthfeel. not goopy like WW medianoches but very thick with just enough carb to make it enjoyable and lively on the tongue as it passes down the gullet. both this and the bourbon phenom were insanely good. just no frills, massive barrel-aged imperial stouts. may have to seek out more of these.

Glossy black with a short but beautiful dark espresso crema head that densely retains for a minute before dispersing to a steeply sharp quarter pipe ridge.

Beautiful charring explodes on the nose but consistently transfers to the palate where it exudes freshly baked corner brownie. This is then as though topped with intensely reduced vanilla caviar syrup and a scoop of jamocha chip. That's right hype chasing breweries, achieved with absolutely no adjuncts.

The viscous yet medium-full body has a fine, mildly fluid carbonation that comes to a lightly sticky yet semi-dry finish exhaling the perfect amount of warmth, black pepper, and Raisinet.

This is a cold mother fucking stunner. Legit as fuck.