Double Barrel Prison Of Cognac
Wax Wings Brewing Company

Drinking: Pours a deep mahogany, with a semi-active head that actually sticks around for a bit. Surprising for that ABV and that much barrel-aging. Opaque in the glass, and amber edges in the light.

Aroma: Shy when cold, but warms to reveal a vinous cognac bite, oaky coconut, butterscotch, and dark caramel.

Flavor: Surprising amounts of cognac. Must have been in just about to soak up the remaining spirit without taking on too much tannic oak. Doesn’t bury the bourbon, but it’s the first to stick its hand out to greet you. Progresses to sweet dark fruits, dark caramel, oaky cacao bitterness, coconut and dark berry fruit roll-up. Definitively finishes a touch sweet, but so well balanced and easy to drink at 15%.

2022 vintage (bottled on 11/2022); consumed on 1/3/2024

Pours a densely oily, jet-brown body capped with a short-lived finger of dark beige foam, fading quickly to a fuzzy, paper-thin cap, thin, frothy collar, and the occasional strand of webby lacing holding tentatively to the walls of the glass.

Aroma offers ripe Cognac upfront, settling steadily to raisin and a touch of butterscotch with milk cocoa edges and a peak of Werthers Originals and gooey caramel lingering.

Taste shows ripe Cognac carrying impressively, supplementing a toasted oak and cocoa threads underscore as Werthers Originals flow over the mid-palate to toffeed graham cracker and jammy prune on the back end of the profile.

Mouthfeel features a medium body and subtle carbonation fading to a modestly dry texturing with slickness underlying; a silky development feeds mild char as tempered stickiness takes hold into a moderate warming on the finish.

Cognac steadily imbues as rich caramel and pointed char hovers in contrast to an otherwise-overwrought liquor distinction; the untethered composition of barrel and base ultimately compliments individual intensities in this bluntly blended yet deceptively appealing Old Ale.

500ml bottle at share. Dark brown pour, opaque, a few stray bubbles. Swet, woody aroma, boozy, Taste follows with a broas malty character, notes of tobacco, oak, boozy, warm. Smooth despite the high ABV.

poured from a 500mL white-waxed bottle into a perennial snifter. pours like cheap red wine but settles in the glass a very dark amber with ruby red see-through edges and a thin brown foam cap which recedes into nothing in no time. plums, black cherry, toffee, unidentifiable spirit barrel all on the nose. taste adds a bit of chocolate and / caramel sweetness to the dark fruits and finishes with some oak. there’s plenty of barrel here but it’s not as in-your-face as i would have expected for a double barrel-aged ale. or perhaps it’s so well integrated with the base beer that it doesn’t appear as massive ad it really is. either way it is really good. it has full mouthfeel with a slick finish. this was awesome. really but it’s stride at room temp as the caramel / toffee flavors take hold and leave the cherry and fruit notes in the background.