Oaked Wee Heavy
Blindman Brewing

1L howler from Sherbrooke Liquor store - Blindman sure seems to be cranking out the 'new' stuff at a rapid pace.

This beer pours a clear, dark red-brick amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves a bit of sheet lightning pattern lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, a faint vanilla-forward generic barrel woodiness, ethereal wispy smoke, some mild bruised pome fruitiness, and very tame earthy, musty, and dead floral hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, a lesser biscuity toffee sweetness, still rather understated woody notes, vanilla cookies, baked red apples, and more weak-sauce leafy, herbal, and musky floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite meek in its milquetoast frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and generally smooth, with a tiny airy creaminess evolving as the ambient temperature increases a bit by this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the plain-ass malt the order of the lingering day.

Overall - yeah, the 'oaked' part of this here equation could very well be a dash of oak chips or the like, given the end result. It's still a proper version of the base style, but any pre-existing barrel conditions quickly fade to damned-near nil.