Circle Of Wolves - Vanilla
The Veil Brewing Co. - Production Brewery

 

The beer pours a light foamy tan head that dissipates at a moderate pace. The beer itself is a very dark brown that is hazy. The smell is very sweet with dark fruit notes such as raisin and dates. The vanilla note is light and the bourbon is as well and only make an appearance when the beer warms up. The taste has the same notes but has a much stronger bourbon and vanilla notes that come upfront rather than in the finish. The sweet dark fruit notes come out in the finish as well as a light orange bitterness too. Furthermore, the vanilla tends to linger even after the finish. The feel is very good. It has a silky texture with a heavy body but no carbonation. Overall, this is a delicious and indulgent beer worth having gotten.

 

 

This one pours a basically dark black color, like a stout (not like a barleywine) with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like cupcake frosting, caramel, molasses, maple, bourbon, oak, cake, and chocolate.

This tastes pretty great. The vanilla is incredibly strong here - almost like cake frosting, with that big vanilla sweet cream flavor. There's also bourbon and caramel, along with a touch of oak. This is quite sweet, but it luckily doesn't approach true cloying level.

This is thick and chewy, and slightly syrupy, with no booziness. It's a slow sipper for sure.

Pastry barleywine tends to make me hesitate, but this is still a tasty little (big) number.