Barrel Aged Lapwing
Sketchbook Brewing Company

 

 

Beer Under Glass 2025. 2023 edition, aged in Four Roses barrels. 10.4%.

If you have this, LET IT AGE. Pour opaque dark brown except some clarity on the edges, full beige head. Smells like malt, rubbing alcohol, faint rye, and a kiss of licorice, yikes. Taste is not far off that, get some peaty earth but the booze here is way way way too strong, even the rye is eviscerated by it. Feel is hot with booze and thin. Drain pour

Pours a murky caramel color, small khaki head leaves a bit of lacing behind. Nose says plum or raisin, oak caramel and booze. It's a bit boozy and provides some background heat. Solid BA Scotch Ale.

Pours a rather clear cola-like reddish brown with a very fizzy two finger head of carbonation that dissipates quickly, but sticks to the edges of the glass.

Nutty, caramel, scotch, fig, raisin, oak, earthy, and slight bourbon spiciness.

Earthy and mildly spiced flavor, raisin, vanilla, char, bourbon, oak, and single malt scotch.

Medium-bodied, high carbonation, prickly, very Belgian style-esque soft and full mouthfeel.

Overall, while this certainly doesn't live up to Founders' Backwoods Bastard, it's a very delicious take on the style and a delicious beer that goes down easy.

Review from BeerAdvocate magazine issue #109 (FEB 2016)

STYLE Barrel Aged Scotch Ale | ABV 8.1% | AVAILABILITY Rotating | BEERADVOCATE.COM SCORE NONE

Mild, Malty, Wood, Warming
The addition of barrel aging reinforces the toastiness this brew wields. Wood tannin, faint notes of caramel, and a more pronounced yet still very mellow alcohol. The barrel char adds a whole lot of depth here. Treacle, wood, mildly peppery alcohol, toasted bread, and a kiss of dark fruit in the middle. I’d love to see more barrel aging from Sketchbook; getting it right for a big yet subtle style is not easy. [Jason]

Look 3.75 | Smell 4.25 | Taste 4.00 | Feel 4.50 | Overall 4.00

 

 

Big bourbon on the nose with strange overtones of cantaloupe / melon. Boozy on the palate with creamy malts. Big vanilla and bourbon flavors on the finish.