3rd/4th Anniversary Blend
Matchless Brewing

Poured from a can at fridge temp. Pours very dark brown with a thin layer of head. The nose is really interested. The peated whisky and bourbon seem to have a good marriage here. A touch of smoke, sweet toffee, vanilla, and loads of dark fruit.

The taste is similar. I am personally a huge fan of peated scotch, and I love me some bourbon as well. I am not 100% sure that I love it when they are mixed like this. On the nose I could separate the smells in my mind, but they crash head on in the taste. Peat smoke, toffee, vanilla, maple, brown sugar, plums, leather, oak, and some candy. It definitely is what it's intended to me, and I think some will love it a bit more than me. Don't get me wrong, it's a great beer for many reasons, but the taste is a bit "confusing" for me.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Two year old, properly cellared can. Pours a very dark mahogany brown with little light transmission in the glass; redder at the edges with a slight head that dissipates to a ring around the glass. Aroma of dry caramel malt, raisins, dried plums, whiskey and a touch of vanilla. Flavor is dry caramel malt, dates, raisins, dried plums, whiskey and nearly peaty smoke; some slightly tart dried fruit in the finish with residual smokiness and whiskey. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess and fine carbonation despite the near still pour. A rich and pleasantly smoky barleywine. The main body is more English than American (mea culpa, I entered this here as American), but it is not traditional English either. The expected dried dark fruit is here, but the peaty smoke is a welcome, if unexpected addition. Although this says it was barreled in whiskey barrels, I'd have guessed Scotch barrels. The smoke is not intense, but adds a great dimension to the overall character. I'm liking this a lot and wish I'd picked up an extra can. I'm not aging as much as I used to (this one at 2 years is the sweet spot I've picked for barleywine at their peak), but I think it could age for a while. Nicely done, Matchless.

 

A: Dark brown pour with a thin tan head that quickly fades to a lasting ring
A: Molasses, vanilla, campfire, raisins, booze
T: Molasses, toffee, smoke, dried fruits, burnt sugar, bourbon, peat (a virtual George Thorogood song in a can), sweet oak.
M: Low carb with thick, full body. Long warming finish turns increasingly smoky and peaty as it fades
O: Big boozy Barleywine, Tantalizing mix of rich flavors coupled with smoke and peat that really ramp up as it warms. Excellent.

Pour is dark for a barleywine, but not all the way into stout territory. Little garnet glint at the edges when held up to the light. Not much head, but not flat by any means. Mostly a thin ring around the edge and a small galactic swirl to the middle. Pleasing, if unspectacular.

Nose is immediately more engaging. Smokey figs is the first thought that comes to mind. I had forgotten it utilized peated whiskey barrels, and that really dominates the nose. good thing I like peatey/smokey whiskeys! Alongside the fig there's some faint leather, maybe a hint of honey dripped dry plum... but the peat certainly overwhelms it all. Again, I like peat, so it works for me, but this is strictly for peat/smoke fans.

The peat/smoke certainly plays heavily into the flavour as well, but it doesn't overwhelm quite as much, allowing for more room for the other flavours to blossom through. There is a strong stone fruit-type sweetness to it. The longer I sit with this glass, the more I like it. In addition to the smoke and the stone fruit, there's hints of toffee and pine and fresh tobacco and rounded oak... It's a beer that rewards patient sipping and unfolds with petals of flavour, all tied around with the overarching/everpresent peat/smoke element.

Smoothe and oily, the finish lingers with smoke and sweet wood. You don't taste the alcohol as much as kind of sense it, though it doesn't burn at all. It's well integrated, but not one where I would be fooled into thinking it's lower than it is.

2021-03-11
16oz can served in a snulip. Purchased as part of the take home Hard Liver Fest from Brouwers Cafe.

Black, little head. Little carbonation. Smell is smokey / toffee / dates. Peat.

Smokey / peaty, rauchbier, char and oak, burnt caramel, dark fruit (raisins or dates or prunes). Bitter chocolate. Sweetness...from the dark fruit?

Mouthfeel is thick, shakey, gritty. Very nice beer.