Rum Barrel Aged Barley Wine
Big Rock Brewery

So - a cellar raid - enjoy by Oct 27/17 on the neck of this 330 ml bottle - yeah it is February 2026 so this is 9 + years old. As such rating it seems unfair - so here we go anyway….
Pours a seemingly clear mahogany/dark reddish brown without a hint of head (but a near decade will do that).
Aroma of dark fruit, toffee, sherry (another shocker) with hints of the oaky rum barrel.
Sweet dark fruit, again sherry on the palate, toffee, a touch of woodiness with a hit of booziness - is that rum? Maybe…
Medium full mouthfeel - boozy sweetness with more carbonation than the lack of head suggested - a lingering esophageal burn/warmth.
Not bad - cannot go back in time to evaluate fresh version, so there you go.

 

 

 

330ml, single bottle - the next in the line of Big Rock's 'Barrel Aged Edition' series, with some nice 'n neat label forms for what their current metrics are, which here includes 8 months housed in Barbadian holy casks, of a type. Hey Rihanna!

This beer pours a clear, very dark red-brick brown colour, with two skinny fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy beige head, which leaves a bit of well-eroded coral reef lace around the glass as it lazily recedes.

It smells of intense dark Caribbean rum notes - cane sugar, estery alcohol, and sodden barrel staves - some bready and doughy house maltiness, Mars Corporation quality nougat, besotted raisins, a touch of musty basement sous-stairs thing, and typically very subtle Foothills Industrial Park hop measures. The taste is rather sweet caramel/toffee/treacle malt, a musty rum barrel character, some wet breadiness, subtle woodsy notes, a sense of yeastiness unrequited, some muddled dark orchard fruitiness, and a separate nerdy, if still restrained, booziness.

The carbonation is fairly understated in its plain as the day is long frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight, and mostly smooth, just a touch of woody and liquor-forward astringency marring the surface of things here. It finishes well, well off-dry, in the manner of, oh, I dunno, that ol' demon rum?

Overall, this is one of the better iterations of this still nascent-seeming and varied barrel program from the good folks at Big Rock - good and sweet, given the base malt, and the chosen booze vessel. Worthy of checking out, if this is your particular set of go-to ya-yas, as such.