Mano Negra Oak Aged Glenrothes Barrel
Picobrouwerij Alvinne

 

Thanks to bu11zeye for sharing this bottle.

When opened, the beer gushed for several minutes before calming down enough to serve. The beer pours a dark brown color with a cream-colored head. The aroma is great. I get a lot of cherries and roasted malt notes, as well as some caramel and oak notes.

The flavor is heavy on the roasted malt, caramel, oak, chocolate, coffee and dark fruit - mainly cherries. The flavor is very complex and each drink brings new flavors - all of which meld very well together. Unlike the Bladnoch barrel-aged version of this beer, I can definitely tell that this beer is barrel aged.

Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

February 2015 cap date; Sampled July 2010
Extremely carbonated as a soft pour produces four-fingers of lightly browned, dark tan colored froth. The beer is quite dark, almost black with perhaps a hint of burnt amber to it. The beer smells of tart prunes, salty soft peat smoke as well as definitely of warm at times hot alcohol. Underneath the initial impression are more fruit-like notes of cherries, and sweet prunes. The hints of smoke mix with aromas of toasted grain and roasted malt.

This is a bit fizzy due to the excess carbonation and it is fairly light bodied for a beer of this strength, but it does have some viscous heft to it. A salty, almost smoky peat character lingers on the palate after each sip. Roasted malt adds some acidity and a bitterness to the finish and there is actually a touch of lingering astringency on the palate too. Whiskey barrel notes definitely dominate the flavor profile and with a touch of tartness that the whiskey contributes, along with the fruit, this can taste vinous at times; almost like a port that is not really sweet.

Interesting, but it just doesn't seem to work for me. The body and malt character are a bit too thin to stand up to the barrel aging, despite the fact that the barrel really hasn't been over done here.