Fourteen Forty: Batch 001
Kettlehead Brewing Company

 

 

I'm always torn whether I should review BBA-anything as I dislike bourbon. But, I love English barleywines that aren't all hoppy. This one's sweet and smooth and not in the least what I would consider hoppy. I just don't like the bourbon aspect and it's strong in this one. Conversely it's mellow in Veektor and I love that one for it. Sorry to drag down the avg rating here due to my tastes. Not sure if it's fair, but ultimately my rating is for me.

This one pours a golden dark brown color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like honey drizzled toast, caramel, oak, peppery spice, slight booze, candied raisins, and vanilla.

This is absolutely excellent, truly, and a nice surprise from something completely off my radar. There’s a lot of barrel character here – it’s oaky, with boozy caramel, vanilla, and lots of bourbon, along with some peppery but pleasant spice character. A lot of really delicious malt character has come out of this one, only using pilsner malt, which is really impressive. There’s caramel, chocolate, honey, molasses, and toffee, and a rich bittersweet breadiness that I really enjoy.

This is medium bodied, rich, not too boozy, and really drinkable.

This was highly impressive stuff – I really loved it.

Out of work early on 22JUN22, so a visit to the Kettle was in order. Drained a couple of 12oz pours of this beauty, at $9.50 per pour.

The small sniftah held a dark, opaque, deep chestnut-mahogany liquid. Couldn't see any carbo, and the head was wispy and thin. Mostly had a few light tan bubbles at the rim, with decent lace. Had a rich, malty nose. Picked up caramelized brown sugar, toffee, caramel and bourbon. Body was medium-plus, and it was smooth and solid.

Like the aroma, flavor had lots of malty goodness. Caramel, brown sugar, figs, toffee, vanilla and bourbon made this mix quite tasty and satisfying. Finished with a lovely, lingering semi-sweetness. Solid+, for sure! Cheers!

4.46/5 rDev +1.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

2352

Can from the Packie.
Dark tawny brown with a good sized off white head that persists.
Rich caramel and toffee with hints of earth vanilla and dark dried fruits. Nice sipper but a little on the cloying side.

BarleyWines aren’t for everyone, but I always love a good one and this SOB was made with love by Sam, Nate, and the crew at Kettlehead Brewing.

Poured into a 16 goblet canned recently, pours a beautiful mahogany with a half finger tan head with solid retention, and leaves thin barbwire streaks of lace. 4.75

Aroma is brown sugar, toffee, fig, oaked vanilla, caramel, and a little bourbon really complex. 4.5

Taste follows brown sugar, fig, toffee, woody vanilla, caramel, and yes the bourbon is around but really well balanced as a whole. 4.5

Mouthfeel is above medium, gentle carbonation, not sticky or dry, and at 10.4% it drinks bigger but because of nuances and a new flavor after each sip really easy going down. 4.75

Overall this brewery has been pumping out great NEDIPAs and sours for over 4 years, but this one takes patience and time. This guy right here is old school and truly shows how special these brewers are and how good they are getting at what was once a hobby. Cheers to them for a special beer that will be hard to forget. 4.75

From a 16 oz. can released in May 2022 and sampled on May 22, 2022.

Gorgeous looking mahogany brown appearance underneath a modest tan head that laces as it slowly fades.

The nose is roasted toffee malts, Bourbon, dark fruit, fig, vanilla, wood, and some of that 10-percent alcohol.

Full, smooth mouthfeel that is warming with each slow sip. And this is a slow sipper.

Vibrant flavors of sweet roasted toffee, fig, dark fruit, vanilla, cream, wood, and Bourbon. Notable alcohol taste. If it hadn't been so noticeable I might have gone 5 out of 5. Still, this is one of the best Barleywines I have had in ages. This one would age very well too and that could knock some of the booze off of it.