C.R. Novum
Temporal Artisan Ales

Battled with the yellow wax for a bit (why is their wax so crazy???). Poured at fridge temp. Pours jet black with minimal head. The nose is fantastic. Butterscotch, rum, slight hint of mint, pears, a hint of smoke, watermelon, and some dark bread. Very unique.

The taste is outstanding. Peat smoke, burnt toffee, melon, Crème brûlée, raisins, rum, custard, vanilla, treacle, and a hint of clove. Wow - so different than any beer that I have tried. The mouthfeel is lovely. Medium to thick bodied with a wonderful molasses aftertaste.

Overall, an incredibly unique beer without anything added (just barrel aging). The complexity that can come through with skilled brewing and barrel work is lovely to experience.

From bottle into snifter. My first adambier, which is not a listed style so I went with "old ale" when listing it. The defining characteristic of the style is using wood-fired kilns to malt the barley, resulting in a smoky character. Apparently they were somewhat sour, too.

Look: Poured brown-black, pretty much no head and no ring, just a few random dots of bubbles. Doesn't stick much when swirled.

Smell: Malt front and center. Raisins, dark rye bread, smoke from the peated malt, butterscotch, rum, 85% dark chocolate, tobacco.

Taste: Oh damn. How is this so sippable while being so dark? Follows the nose, but sweeter, and with more chocolate than raisin. The butterscotch and molasses note from the rum is more present here and makes this exceptional. Not boozy at all. The peated malt gives it a very slight smoky character, the perfect amount. Incredibly smooth and balanced. The nose had me interested but I wasn't expecting this at all.

Feel: Medium body, not very oily, light on the carbonation which works in its favour. Extremely easy and pleasurable to sip for a 12.5%.

Overall: Really floored by this. Wow. Exactly as sweet, as smoky, as dark, and drinkable as I wanted it to be. Bullseye. Can't speak to how accurate to the historical style of adambier it is (it isn't really sour or hoppy, for instance, which a quick read suggests adambiers historically were) but I can't really say I care, either. When it's this delicious, he can call it whatever he wants to.