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

You smell the vanilla beans from literally feet away. It’s vanilla ice cream with bourbon caramel sauce. I’m not going to sit here and try to get all Ciceroney and come up with all of these esoteric aromas for the sake of being verbose. It’s just intense, fruity, mouth-watering vanilla with a bourbon kick from the barrels, and caramel undertones from the massive malt backbone. The wolves approach..

Veil barleywines are some of my favorites. They are deep, rich, classically British malt explosions, but the amount of vanilla in this has turned it a tad too light and fruity. Even though the aroma was intense, I didn’t expect the vanilla to impart so much opposing influence. Usually vanilla beans are an aroma, and not so much of a flavor component, but this is the exception. It’s intense and floral, and moves away from the dark fruit, leathery tobacco notes I adore in a BA barleywine. It’s very good, but I wish the vanilla was more of a complement to the barrel, and not the prevailing flavor.