Big Chuck Hunter: Kentucky
Varietal Beer Company

Poured from a 16oz can into a Smog City snifter (thanks to @snaotheus for both!). Pours a dark amber with see-through edges and a khaki colored foam head of a little less than one finger. Light dark fruits, toffee and bourbon on the nose. This has warmed a bit and still the nose is quite subdued. Taste has much more prominent notes of caramel, toffee, bourbon, oak and molasses. Thick, chewy mouthfeel. This tastes a lot better than it smells. Not that it smells bad. The nose just doesn’t give off the aroma you’d expect once you taste this beer. It’s quite good though. Listed as American barleywine but seems more English to me. No hop presence whatsoever. Good stuff.

Poured at fridge temp. Pours a murky brown with minimal head. The nose is wonderful. Salted toffee, vanilla, slight banana, malts, figs, and a candy note.

The taste is just wonderful. Werther's caramel candy, raisins, figs, marmalade, bread, vanilla, and bourbon. Lovely!

The mouthfeel is also fantastic.

Big and sweet, but this still comes across as American-ish to me. Burned caramel and sweet, sweet bourbon dominate with praline, vanilla, brown sugar, and very faint raisin lending support. The mouthfeel is satisfyingly sticky and still. Not subtle in any way, this beast is a lot of fun. Thanks Ryan!

Pours a reddish brown with a small amount of short-lived head. I’ll be kind and call this beer pedestrian looking. Aroma has loads of molasses & figs, with bourbon and vanilla notes rounding things out.

Very nice tasting beer. Rich and boozy without being too much of either. Figs, faint oak, vanilla and a subtle bourbon kick on the finish.

Overall, very well done beer.

Pours an effervescent Chestnut with a thumb of tan head. Some head retention & lacing

S: Figs, raisins, plums, candied cherries & Brandy, fades a little once warmed up

T: Bourbon barrel, Maple Candy at first then Toffee, dryness, leafy hops with figs & plums & brown sugar. Brown sugar, Bourbon, figs, leafy hops as this beer warms up, a little woody hop as well. Finishes with booze/Bourbon presence, Brown Sugar, figs & some pineyness

MF: Medium body, low carbonation, warming booze

To me. the hop profile makes me think this could be an English Style Barley Wine, but damn tasty regardless. Nice drinkability despite the heft. I guess it skews a little American closer to room temperature

From a 16oz can with no date on the can, though "Boy Howdy! It's Huntin' Time" printed on the bottom of the can. I did let it warm up a bit before opening.

This is a dark brown pouring beer. I was surprised that there was a 1 1/2 finger tan head that lasted a long time considering the ABV. There's no lacing on the glass as the head disappears.
The aroma is so full of plum, raisin and fig. There's also hints of vanilla, caramel and toffee in this beer.
Taste - Very rich flavored. I just get a great hit of dark fruit right away. This flavor doesn't fade, but is added to by the caramel, toffee and vanilla. There's a slight bitterness on the finish of this beer.
The body is quite full and thick. There's a faint bubbly feeling to this beer. There's a very slight burn to this beer that tells you to take your time with it.
I am very impressed with this beer. A delicious beer of this style, and a pleasure to try.

 

Very murky pour, with poor head production. Not an attractive beer.

Nose is fantastic, perfectly exemplifying the marriage of a classic American barleywine with bourbon barrels. Hints at a stronger level of sweetness than one might expect of the style, but that can easily be attributed to the Willett bourbon barrels. Leather, bark, raisin, grape, toffee, caramel, and an impression of fresh fields that is impossible to nail down.

Even sweeter on the palate than the nose implies - and frankly, just a bit too sweet. Perhaps the hops have lost too much bite with so much time in the barrels, or perhaps the Willett influence is simply that huge after over a year in the barrels - or a combination of both. It borders on cloying, especially for the style, but even still, it's really damn tasty. Tasting notes more or less mimic the nose, although it's sweeter and more syrupy. While it's obviously a big beer, there's very little hint on the palate of the sky-high ABV.

Really a fantastic beer that is so close to being even better. I understand the base beer is dry-hopped; perhaps a stronger early hop schedule would help the bitterness balance everything out after such a long stint in the barrels.

Big Chuck Hunter Kentucky – from Varietal Brewing. Received in a retaliatory ninja strike from @snaotheus. Reviewed 04/06/24 (Review 3287). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated can; however, the blurb on the can reveals that this brew started in 2022 and aged for over a year, so it’s quite fresh. Stored at 39 degrees at home. Served at 52.3 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 62.2 degrees F.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Medium Amber (SRM 12), clear.
Body – Milk Chocolate Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, same. Rear lite, red amber and slight chill haze
Head – Tiny (Maximum 0.3 cm, aggressive center pour), tan, low density and fizzy, gone within seconds of completing the pour, leaving neither crown nor cap.
Lacing – None. Really didn’t expect much at 12.1% ABV.
Aroma – 4 – Sweet with bourbon, a little dark fruit. No yeast, no hops, no alcohol (12.1 % ABV as marked on the can).
Flavor – 4 – Begins sweet but not cloying. Not really detecting any bourbon or barrel on the taste, just some weak dark fruit and brown sugar. No yeast, no hops, no alcohol. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Slight gastric warming.
Palate – 4.5 – Medium; almost syrupy; soft carbonation.
Final Impression and summation: 4.25 Kind of one-dimensional (sweet) with brown sugar and little bourbon barrel. The ethanol is extremely well-hidden – this is a very innocuous tasting beer, great poundability. One I’d revisit any the earliest opportunity.

16oz can purchased at Mid Columbia Wine & Spirits, in Kennewick, Washington, around 3 weeks ago, for $12.95.

Poured into a stemmed glass, of a type whose name is not known to me, I immediately smelled an overwhelming really sweet and boozy aroma. In the glass, it was a dark and woodsy shade of brown, with the nearest wisp of a khaki colored head that disappeared almost instantly. There was absolutely no trace of lace on the size of the glass. When held up to light, things take on a ruby-ish hue. Not particularly great looking, but not unreasonable looking, when you consider the ABV that is in play.

The aroma is redolent of sweet maltiness and booziness. There's really nothing else to get out of it, certainly not any hop character. It smells like a straightforward alcohol bomb. EDIT: It becomes more civilized in aroma upon warming up a little. There's notes of dark fruit, caramel, pipe tobacco aged in spirits, almost a de-bittered black licorice scent. The sweetness makes me think perhaps it should be classified as an English barleywine.

When allowed to properly warm up, the flavor is very similar to what I described above in the aroma department. Despite the Bourbon barrel aging, the flavor comprises just as much of those characteristics noted above as the ones you'd expect from something kept in urban barrels. There's a sweetness that goes beyond the vanilla that's like notes of something aged in oak barrels, and beyond the brown sugary elements that are normal to come to mind with bourbon. At the same time, things never get cloyingly sweet. Like in the nose, there is no sign of any sort of hoppiness. Although the aroma hinted strongly of booze when the can was opened, it's not nearly as strong in the flavor as I expected it to be, though it does linger in the deep background.

Medium dash full body, a little bit under carbonated, but not to a point where it's to be over here.

Initially, when I cracked open this can, I thought it was a brash booze bomb, but allowing it to warm up a bit before fully committing allowed it to reveal itself as a relatively comp lex American barley wine. I've never had this sort of beer from Varietal, a brewery I tend to think of more in terms of IPAs. I think I need to try more of their beers of a non-stereotypically hoppy style.