The Wolf Of Glen Moray - Port Cask Finish
Windswept Brewing Co

330 ml bottle in cardboard cylinder, from Kalø Whisky & Vin. ABV is 9.0%. Dark brown to black colour, tan head. Rich and moderately roasty aroma and flavour with distinct notes of Port cask, hints of Scotch whisky.

 

 

Bottle: Poured a clear deep burgundy color ale with a large light brown foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of dry caramelized malt with nice port and scotch notes is quite enticing. Taste is a great mix of dry caramelized notes with some smooth port notes with light residual sugar notes and some scotch notes are also perceptible with light oak presence. Body is about average with good carbonation and light alcohol presence. Interesting beer but some flavors could have been more pronounced.

330 mL bottle-in-a-sleeve purchased at the LCBO; best before July 2022 and served slightly chilled.

This beer is deep chestnut brown with reddish-amber highlights; a very delicate pour still generated more than two fingers of billowing, pillowy, light beige-coloured head that lasted for over ten minutes' time. A fabulous coat of sticky lace is deposited in the process, with a smooth, creamy, half-inch cap remaining in place - no complaints about the visuals. Smells mostly of caramelized malts, toffee and boozy scotch, with hints of oak, vanilla, raisin and fig, as well as a hint of port.

Very smooth for the style - subtle hints of grape and port wine are discernible right from the start, with an understated malt backbone asserting itself thereafter. I'm getting notes of bread, toasted grains and toffee, alongside hints of cocoa, whisky and wood; touches of dark fruit and more port towards the finish, followed by a moderately boozy aftertaste with some earthy, spruce-y bitterness and suggestions of coffee grounds. Medium in body, with relatively low carbonation levels that gently nudge the surface of the palate, resulting in a smooth mouthfeel. Decent drinkability considering its abv, but one is plenty for me.

Final Grade: 3.9, a B+. The Port Cask Finished Wolf of Glen Moray is pretty good, but its cardboard sleeve seems unnecessary: I can already appreciate this beer for its nuance, and also for its price, as cask/barrel-aged beers rarely come in at under $5. Truthfully, I had been expecting something a bit more bold and memorable - which might have to do with the fancy packaging - but I liked it well enough to encourage other BAs to give it a try. This was merely the first of two bottles, so I'll cellar the other and update this review in the future, to see if it improves with age.

 

330ml, black foil sealed bottle, which comes in a nice cardboard tube. Shared with a good friend.

This beer pours a clear, dark red-brick brown colour, with a very thin cap of wispy and bubbly beige 'head', which leaves a bit of mitochondrial lace around the glass as things slowly sink away.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, a bit of biscuity toffee, treacle, a hint of peaty smokiness, bittersweet cocoa powder, ethereal woody red wine, and some very minor leafy and perfumed floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, strange wine notes (kind of in a hollow sour manner, if that makes any sense), a muddled berry fruitiness, pithy medium chocolate, a hint of relatively benign Island whisky, and more soapy and floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite understated in its flaccid-seeming frothiness, the body a so-so middleweight, and mostly smooth, just a suggestion of the floral booziness threatening to undermine the situation here. It finishes off-dry, the malt, mixed hooch essences, and floral character fading us out in an unholy triumvirate.

Overall, this is sort of a disappointment, as the 'Port Wine Cask' flavours are too lost in the fray of malt and whisky hegemony. Maybe they show up better in the titular spirit, but here, they're just a mess, rendering a less-than flavourful experience.