Once More With Feeling Double Barrel Barleywine Blended Edition
Casita Brewing Company

Picked up a 2023 edition from the Appalachian Vintner 10-26-23 for $21. Consumed 1-17-25.

Beer poured dark brown with a fizzy tan head that dissipated quickly.

Nose is nice, getting dark fruits, toffee, sour apples, and vanilla.

Taste follows the nose as the large malt base gives notes of raisins and dates with a touch of toffee. Brandy barrels come on strong and lends a touch of sour apple. Thankfully bourbon barrels come into play and counter with some char and vanilla. Finishes with a touch of sweetness appropriate for the English BW style.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied and is pretty smooth.

Overall thank the stars that the bourbon barrels came to the rescue as this ended up very nice in the end.

Dark blackish brown body, light oatmeal brown cap. Apple brandy beats the bourbon easily. Smell is laced with the brandy, with behind elements of molasses, dark wood, barley, toasted caramel and bourbon. Taste is a little more balanced with brandy still leading though, barley, grape, raisin, toasted caramel, dark wood, char, and black strap molasses. Feel is full of barley and tannins, with booze warmth, and lighter malt, relatively smooth

Thanks to CarolinaCardinals for sending this to me in our Barleywine/stout BIF!
Deep & dark mahogany in hue. Sandy head forms but tapers off. Low retention, slight lacing.
Nose pops with sticky sweet apple brandy. Caramel, dates, and brown sugar come through as well, but carried on the omnipresence of apple brandy. Other barrel hints come through as well, a hint of soaked barrel, deep berry like fruit notes.
Flavor follows the nose truthfully. The fruit shows up first, followed by a sticky sweet. Then the caramel, brown sugar, toffee, dates, raisin, and candy sugars chime in. But it definitely comes back to the apple brandy dancing with hints of bourbon and vinous sherry.
Mouthfeel is full, a tad sticky, and hints at warmth.

Cute little 500ML bottle with gold wax & complementary gold lettering, all exuding an understated classiness. I hope the contents agree.

Very dark for a barleywine, boasting a distinct lack of head to prove what style it is. The nose is sweet with a surprisingly strong scent of apple brandy. I like apple brandy.

Once More With Feeling – Double Barrel Blended is intense. Deep barley & malt sweetness cranks hard, almost hiding the solar flare of alcohol flowering throughout my innards. The bourbon keeps low while the apple brandy goes high, lending the beer an almost Shasta-like flavor (except 27x better than Shasta, of course). Taking this bottle single. Might be able to do another tonight. But I have to be conscious tomorrow. Early. For a Saturday.

My intro to this brewery pleases me. Hefty without being pastry with the barrels spun in a gorgeous, almost-original way. Excellent beer.

dark as you'd expect, thin tan head, again as expected. Smell is sweet, as is the taste. If you know Pedro Ximinez it's coming through - more than expected given the competing voices listed. Pleasingly gentle for the abv. This is a barleywine.