Intent - Barrel Aged - Blend 2 (2023)
New Image Brewing Company

500 ml bottle into a tulip snifter. Bottled 6/10/23, had 3/15/25.

Pours a mostly opaque dark amber color, with no head and sparse, spotty lacing. Aromas of bourbon, some rye whiskey, caramel, fig, raisin, vanilla, some tobacco and oak, a little brown sugar. Similar flavors, with the levels shifting a bit: bourbon, caramel, rye whiskey, malt, oak, tobacco- more as it warms, some fig and raisin, light vanilla, a little brown sugar. Smooth, a solid medium body, well carbonated.

An excellent effort from NI. The bourbon and rye barrels stand out among the many expressive aromas and flavors- the caramel, fig and raisin notes being most prominent. Just a delight to work through the bottle.

RFOB23 0455

This one pours a fairly dark brown ish color, with a tiny head, and no lacing. It looks very lightly carbonated, for sure.

This smells quite sticky and quite sweet, with raisin, plum, tobacco, caramel, maple, and burnt molasses.

Not surprisingly, this is big, sweet, and heavy, as the 16.94% ABV should suggest to you. There’s lots of dark fruit, like concentrated raisin juice, mellow but warming caramelly bourbon, oaky spice, sweet maple, and a distinct caramelized brown sugar and molasses vibe. I definitely wish for a bit pronounced char, oak, and barrel character to balance out the heavy malt sweetness, but in small doses, this is undoubtedly delicious.

This is thick, lightly carbonated, and just bordering on syrupy.

If you have one of these, you’ll most enjoy it if you split it amongst multiple people, and treat it like an express version of Utopias.

 

Oh yeah this is right in my wheelhouse, reminiscent of a Kane offering. I can think of no higher praise. The carbonation is practically nill while the body is full and wonderfully sticky. There is a potent black strap molasses note right out of the gate that is noticeable throughout. It is joined by burned caramel, intense tobacco, concentrated raisins, and beautifully well incorporated mellow brown liquor. This is a gem.