Now & Then
Cabin Brewing

 

Appearance - Pours a amber with two fingers of bubbly white head.

Smell - earthy, leafy, floral, and spicy hops, candied sugar, bready malts, caramel, fruity esters (plum, raisin), and earthy yeast.

Taste - earthy, leafy, floral, and spicy hops upfront. The candied sugar, bready malts, caramel, and fruity esters of plum and raisin come throgh next. The earthy yeast rounds out the brew.

Mouthfeel - Medium to full bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes chewy with all ingredients lingering alongside a pleasant warmth from the alcohol.

Overall - A bold and flavourful barleywine from Cabin. This one is a bit easy to put back which makes this a dangerous tipple.

355ml can - nice to try a li'l somethin' somethin', now & then & again, eh?

This beer pours a clear, dark bronzed amber colour, with four flabby fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some decent exploding anti-aircraft fire lace around the glass as it lazily subsides.

It smells of bready and biscuity cereal malt, brown sugar syrup, candied citrus and grape fruity notes, a subtle under the basement stairs mustiness, and very tame earthy, leafy, and herbal green hop bitters. The taste is doughy and crackery caramel malt, white wine lees, muddled black stone fruit, fading domestic citrus peel, and more understated leafy, weedy, and mild piney hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly restrained in its ennui-encouraging frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and actually quite smooth, with an interesting airy creaminess arising as things warm up a touch around here. It finishes off-dry, with the malt and fruit esters maintaining course, in the face of a lingering hop counterpoint.

Overall - this is certainly an agreeable enough version of the style, with the big boy pants wearing ABV acting rather precocious for its young age. Crisp, (a little too) easy to put back, and yeah, a brew that can be enjoyed, well, 'now', and most likely equally so, er, 'then'.