Barrel Belgian Strong
Hired Hand Brewing Co.

neat beer, neat barrel profile, strong but smooth, unique as they go, almost a belgian dark strong meets a barleywine, lots of malt to this, deep crimson in color at the source, must be aged in a red wine barrel, as this appears almost port-like, short head for a belgian, but seems old and mature in a good way. less aromatic on the ferment than anticipated, less belgian yeasty to me, mellow there, light spiciness, hints of white pepper and anise, but its more about the grain, brown sugar, toffee, raisin, dark leather, baked bread, and light licorice, really unique, not as heavy as i am describing it to be, and quite a bit of oak on it too, vanilla there, a definite rum note too, and grapey fruitiness, black cherry, slightly medicinal on the alcohol but i like that. i am underwhelmed by the yeast, its not an off ferment or anything at all, but it doesnt present like a belgian and i kind of miss that aspect, but the barrel fills in with some cool esters, definite big red wine notes, cherry cola, a bit of char, and there is a ton of grain, graham cracker and honey, but not overly sweet, thinner in body than seems possible at this abv, but its actually quite like to drink, even with modest carbonation. this is pretty interesting beer, red hard candy, tons of wood, many grain layers, strong and strange, but we really enjoyed it, especially at temperature. easily the most ambitious and nuanced of the beers they were pouring when we were in, cool effort. fun spot!