Barrel Aged Slick
All Season Brewing Company

Tried it in the brewery. Poured in a tulip glass.

Look - I've had the version of this that was barrel-aged before and it had a slightly redder tint to it. This looks more like cola. Dark brown. I had no bright light source around to see if it was indeed a dark amber. There was a small light brown head that died down quickly. Very bubbly and not creamy. Looks like carbonation when you open a soda rather than a traditional beer head. Minimal lacing on the glass.

Smell - Hmm not much. Very cocoa and cola-like, but everything seems muted. This is weird. The standard Slick had a lot more hutzpa (dried fruits, malt, chocolate, and coffee)...but this just doesn't have much going for it. A bit of alcohol in the nose too. Slight whiskey malt smell, but this isn't pronounced and I'll say it doesn't add much.

Taste - Ok, cocoa which I expect from a baltic porter. Very light malt flavor. I get a powerful cola note..in fact, it is very much like a cola with alcohol. Light whiskey flavor comes through as well. This was aged in a whiskey barrel, so that makes sense. I get the funk of wood; funky and tangy. Slight alcohol in the finish.

Feel - Ehh. Like I said, I've had the standard Slick and I have to say: the standard Slick is much, much smoother than this. This is very effervescent. I want my baltic porters to be smooth. Anyone wants their porter and stout variations to be smooth. This wasn't smooth. It was bubbly and the alcohol burns slightly in the end. The beer is heavy too, as a baltic porter would typically be. So, this is something you want to sip...but it's hard to sip and enjoy when it is so damn tingly. What happened with the barrel? I would expect a barrel-aged porter to be smoother.

Overall, I enjoyed the non-barrel-aged version to be a lot nicer. That version I got cocoa, malt, coffee, and dried fruits. Not only was that version more varied in flavors, but it also had the cocoa note much more pronounced. I know that barrel aging can sometimes make beer flavors softer...but the barrel aging softened the notes while adding not much else besides a confusing cola flavor, some wood funk, and more alcohol (which of course with a beer you want to mask the alcohol). Maybe the pour was bad? They made the glass as filled as possible and didn't leave any room for head...so of course the carbonation is gonna come out as pure effervescence instead of a nice head with aromatics in it. Maybe if the pour was better then I'd get the full spectrum of flavors. I know that they age in actual barrels (you can see the casks in the brewery), so maybe they need to age the beer longer before they decide to put this on tap...in fact, don't even put it on tap and dispense straight from the barrel instead.

Basically, it was very ok. I got through it and didn't "hate" the beer. However, I did want, and expect, a lot more out of this especially because their standard version of this brew is so (as the name suggests), Slick. The standard version is so good and was my second favorite brew here. This just soured that taste I had for it. I would expect a lot more from a barrel-aged since usually a brewer puts more time and care into it.