Old Bendmaster Blanton's
American Solera

 

 

 

 

Pours a dark brown, almost black. Could be mistaken for a stout. Dense, brown head emerges, but quickly recedes.

Stick your nose in the glass, and you’re met with massive notes of maple, oaky brown sugar and Oreo cookies. Simple as that. It smells awesome.

Flavors of dark fruit leather, caramel, and smoked figs. After swallowing you draw faint vanilla through your nose as you exhale. Overwhelming booze soaked wood, char, and finishes very hot. This is a situation where the barrel has sort of overpowered the base beer.

The base beer had a lot of promise, and the aroma was spot on, but it’s a tad out of balance for me. Would I order it if I came across it on tap? Absolutely, but it wasn’t what I was hoping for.

On tap at Grimm Artisanal Ales in Brooklyn, NY.

This one pours a murky golden brown color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like caramel, toffee, maple, dusty chocolate, oak, and brown sugar.

It's been a bit since I've had other variants of this beer, but it seems to be about on par with the other ones. There's a good sweetness here, not too high, with a nice amount of sticky and oaky barrel character.

This is medium bodied, warming but not too boozy, with a nice drinkability.

It was a very nice surprise to find this one on tap at Grimm randomly walking in one night.