Bourbon Barrel Aged Soul Keeper
Oddstory Brewing

Giving this beer another shot. 2017, non-adjunct BA Soul Keeper.

The pour is thin.. a dark siena brown, but without much viscosity. The head is soft and heavy, beige in color and rising above the beer nicely. As it falls, patterns of lace lag behind and recede slowly.

I will say the nose is much better than I remember. LOTS of bourbon barrel influence, oaky and strong with notes of dark fruit . A rich backbone of dark chocolate and roasty coffee balance out the booze and round out a complexity to the profile.

While similar to what I remembered on the palate, I do get an improvement this time around having more time to sip and allow to warm/develop. Still getting too much of a malty predominance, but I get more barrel this time. Certain sips are giving me mildly tinny hints, but along with it also flavors of stewed, dark fruit, toasted oak, and baker's chocolate. Again, the malt gives a sort of imbalanced potency, but a lot more credit goes to the overall effort here. I would have like to compare it to a fresh bottle.

As mentioned previously, this one's pretty thin. Effervescent carbonation does well to cut through a surprisingly boozy 9.9%, but the warmth is pleasant and does this beer favors when judging it overall.

 

Black Waxed 750ml bottle with no date poured into 2 large tulips. Came out like a larger abv brown ale with lots of floaties leaving a thin tan head. Smell was heavy on the barrel mixed with dark fruits, roast, cocoa and light coffee. Taste matched the smell even with the barrel notes. Feel was thin but expected the way it poured. Overall not bad, I was actually expecting a drain pour given the last 2 BA beers I’ve had from them!