Opus Reserve
Whiskey Hill Brewing Company

 

Toffee and burnt brown sugar, oatmeal raisin cookies and fig newton's, and a prominent brown liquor/bourbon/cognac barrel boozy nose on this one!

Taste follows with a velvety smooth, chocolate and molasses, spice cake, and sweet cognac boozy finish.

Wow! At this bigboi ABV, I am trying to figure out how it hides it so well! You can see the legs when you give the glass a swirl...the boozy heat singes the nose hairs a bit on the aromatics...but when you taste it, the barrels are integrated so harmoniously, that all you get is some warming heat that makes you smile! Ha!

If I had to nitpick, I wish the mouthfeel was just a touch more viscous?...but outside of that, this is world-class.

This leans more cognac than bourbon IMO (and that is alright by me! LOL!), but this is so well done! This hangs with the big boys of the Barleywine game like Side Project, Cellarmaker, Anchorage, Moksa, and Revolution IMO. One of the best of the year!

Had on tap. When we get into triple BA and 19.5% abv I get suspicious of how good this beer can actually be. Let this be the rubric! Let's start with the feel with that in mind, it is dangerous how well this hides the booze. If anything barrel tannins and barley are felt more than the luxurious booze with wave of malts, warm, thick, and heavy, but all in a rich way, sweeter for sure but so massive and smooth you don't care. Smells is incredible: toffee, toasty dark barrel, cognac and bourbon playing off of molasses, rich lush dark fruits, gooey caramel, vanillins with a hint of brulee, with a hint of apricot, wet earth and even honey. Taste is on the sweeter end of things, but barrels are strong enough to balance, overall rich and full toffee, caramel, molasses, dried plum, big raisin and vanilla all bask in the glory of the barley and barrel dance on the palate. Dark brown body with a large brown head, dotted lazy lacing. Up there with some of the best massive and rich ba barleywines, wow! Beer of the year candidate!