Oak & Age; While My Otter Gently Weeps
Sig Brewing Co.

Sig Oak + Age While My Otter Gently Weeps 14 mo Bourbon/Port BA English Barleywine, 12.8% ABV. Pours very deep brown, with a ring of light-brown bubbles that leaves an oily sheen instead of lacing. Very complex beer. Aromas include but are not limited to oak, bourbon, grape, dark fruit. Taste is oak, chocolate, grape, bourbon, some pleasant burn, no sweetness, slight oak bitterness. Excellent dry mouthfeel, overall outstanding.

This is quite pleasingly dry overall. I get lots of dried, dark fruits and abundant, warming booze that is at once grape-y and brown. There hints of sweetness from charred brown sugar and very low sugar orange marmalade. Overall this is vaguely tea or potpourri like. The only thing marring this is an astringent woodiness at the finish that comes on too strong. Overall a fine beer, thanks Ryan!

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque in the glass with a quarter finger khaki head that dissipates to a thin film with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, dried plums, dates, light cocoa and hits of dried light stone fruit; boozy. Flavor is dry caramel and toasted malt, dried plums, raisins, whiskey, Port, woody oak; dry, slightly astringent woody oak finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. An interesting English leaning barleywine with lots of woody barrel character. The Port barrel adds a very pleasant note to the beginning of the taste, but may add some to the light astringency in the finish. There is a little alcohol burn and I'm glad that I put 2 years on this one, it may be a bit mellower and satisfactory now. A quirky, but satisfying barreled barleywine that held up to a little aging well, it could probably age a bit longer just fine.

 

I am sampling a 12 oz can of this beer at cellar temp. The date stamp is 1/18/2023. Pouring into my trusty snifter.
The beer pours more of a stout color with dark cola colors and no light passing through my glass. A creamy beige colored head of 1 cm foams up in my glass and fades to a sturdy edge layer soon after the pour. The edging sticks around till finish of beer.
The aroma is very bold and rich even from across the table I can smell this beer in my glass. There is some dark fruit, figs and raisin, also a good dose of bourbon, some brown sugar and hints of caramelized fruit. I get a little booziness and some wooden barrel notes here. Aroma is complex and appealing to me.
First sip reveals a medium to thick body, with slightly sticky texture and fine tingly carbonation. The beer drinks like a boozy sipper on the physical traits.
Flavor is similar to the nose advertisements. I get some dark chocolate, brown sugar, bourbon hits, and dark fruit with raisin and fig dominant. Here I also get some roasted note, almost char, probably from the barrels. I get a little black pepper bite on the finish, which I attribute to the ABV.
This is a robust flavorful and complex beer. I enjoy everything Im getting from this can. Very glad to have tried this one, even if it looks more like a stout than a barleywine.