Sleeping Forever - Pappie Power Bourbon
The Veil Brewing Co. - Production Brewery

 

From New Beer Weekend #142

Received from @turkeysdrinkbeer in August 2022, and drunk in April 2023.

It's the curse of the craft beer cognoscenti that at 13% this is not the strongest beer in my fridge. Maybe the fault lies with me for coveting and chasing those beers, demand creating the otherwise dormant supply. I've had a few very big beers of late (ergo, supply), and while they're enjoyable, I do wonder why we bother. And then the answer reveals itself in the previous sentence. They're enjoyable. So shut up, Az, and review the beer.

The Sleeping Forever heritage runs strong with this one, and as per its Apple Brandy Barrel brother it sits in the glass like a solid, impenetrable mass, blacker than Satan's soul, utterly still and bedecked with a caramel-coloured, short-lived head. Just looking at it you can tell it's going to be a big, big beer. I'm tempted to turn the glass upside down to see if the beer oozes out like gelatin, but I'm a few beers short of the inclination to do something that stupid this early in the afternoon.

There's an umami crunchiness to the smell that brings to my mind squashed bugs, soil, and hay turning to silage. While that description might be off-putting, it's not meant to be - it's just the thoughts that that particular smell brings to my mind. I could bore you with the mental picture it creates, all drawn from specific memories (and that's what the best scents do - evoke memories) but I won't... As the bugs scuttle away vanilla infused coffee and sweet chocolate come out, blinking in the sunlight and giving note to the tastes that will follow. There's an ever-so-slight whisky barrel note too. I'm too lazy to look up which of the whiskies Pappy Power belongs to, but that thin, ephemeral, almost fuel-like note is definitely there. [My laziness abated as my drunkenness rose and I see it was a bourbon. That must be part of the vanilla note I pick up.].

As for taste, the barrel comes into play big time once we get maybe a third of the way into the beer and the initial taste notes have faded. It overlays smooth chocolate, cinnamon, and mildly roasted base. Sweetness is kept well in check. It was a close-run thing with the Apple Barrel version but this one controls the sweetness well. It's still very much there, but held in check The finish is long and washed with bourbon.

Carbonation is adequately and predictably light, and the beer is as thick in the mouth as it looked upon the pour. It coats my mouth in a sweet covering of sugary alcohol and while it's likely going to be the panacea for a diabetic in sugar shock, I'm not sure my dentist or waistline will be overly thankful that I'm drinking yet another Sleeping Forever! There's a stickiness to the beer as well - my moustache clings stubbornly lower on my lip than usual, locked there in its saccharine-encased handcuffs. My lips, made of stouter stuff than my soup strainer, still need to fight the adhesive properties of the beer that coats them.

For mine, this beer is an experience that you tick off and probably won't ever bother going back to. It's a nice enough beer, but at 13% and 500ml, it's a one-and-done beer for your entire night. It's drunk slowly - I'm an hour in and halfway done as I type this, but unless I want to get really tanked, why would I go on? I suspect no-one is suggesting I have to drink another one, and I'm likely just some half-sloshed idiot talking to himself as I type this, but my point is there's big, and then there's silly big, and in my opinion this beer is in the latter camp.

Cheers!
#224

Bottle. Black color, oil thick. Little tan head.

Over hyped bourbon barrels doesn’t make the beer any better in this case. Solid BA stout, but nothing out of the ordinary. Fudge, roast, bourbon, vanilla, dark fruits. Solid.