Empty Sea - Barrel Fermented
Forest & Main - The Brewery
- From:
- Forest & Main - The Brewery
- Pennsylvania, United States
- Style:
- Baltic Porter
- ABV:
- 8%
- Score:
- +5 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 4.09 | pDev: 1.96%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 1
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Nov 20, 2024
- Added:
- Mar 20, 2024
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
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-
We treated this year’s batch of Empty Sea extra special. Like previous years, we brewed it with German Pilsner and dark Munich malts, with some nice British Chocolate malt and Midnight Wheat and hopped it very appropriately. But this year we fermented the whole batch in used Cognac and Bourbon barrels with our lager yeast at cold temperatures. After fermentation we let the beer condition further in the barrels in our walkin cooler. It was a pretty fun process to manage for us, and the subtle booze and oak character from the barrel fermentation melds real nice into the beer. We’re getting notes of ethereal plum juice, chocolate liquor, scratch and sniff charred oak barrels, when you add the vanilla to the chocolate cake batter, sliced Fuji apples, and a clean dry lager finish.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by dano213 from Pennsylvania
4.04/5 rDev -1.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
4.04/5 rDev -1.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
16oz can purchased from the fridge as a single for $5.99 plus tax. From Instagram, this was released February 15, 2024 so it's just over 9 months old.
Look: It is very dark brown dark, almost black. There are some ruby highlights peeking through the bottom of the glass and if you look closely, it looks more like dark brown on top than black. It seems to have a relatively lighter body. There is a very thin khaki-colored head.
Smell: It has those classic Baltic Porter dark lager vibes. Nice chocolatey raisin notes along with a pumpernickel bread note. There's a subtle woody note here. If I didn't know that this beer is Bourbon barrel-aged, I'm not sure that I would guess so. But knowing that it is, I can pick up on some of the spirit and wood notes. There's a very nice roasty, toasty note on the finish and it doesn't smell bitter at all.
Taste: It's very tasty. The beer is infinitely smooth and it has a long, lingering finish with notes of coffee, charcoal, dark chocolate, and brown bread. The finish is moderately bitter with some licorice, anise, and clove notes coming through. It's honestly hard to say that the barrel aging is influencing this beer so much. After all, the base version of this beer The Empty Sea is also 8% ABV so I'm not sure if that means that this version was aged for a very short time or it was a smaller base beer?
Feel: Medium minus to medium bodied, it has a very smooth and creamy mouthfeel. The beer is nicely carbonated. Overall, it has a bit of a thinner mouthfeel than what I would want from an 8% ABV Baltic Porter.
Overall: While I really like this beer I don't think that it was better than the base beer, which I had in July 2022 and blew me away. It would be interesting to taste them side by side; I think that they would taste pretty similar. If anything, I think that the barrel aging makes this beer more tannic and detracts from the overall smoothness and more gentle and drinkable experience that the base beer has.
Nov 20, 2024Look: It is very dark brown dark, almost black. There are some ruby highlights peeking through the bottom of the glass and if you look closely, it looks more like dark brown on top than black. It seems to have a relatively lighter body. There is a very thin khaki-colored head.
Smell: It has those classic Baltic Porter dark lager vibes. Nice chocolatey raisin notes along with a pumpernickel bread note. There's a subtle woody note here. If I didn't know that this beer is Bourbon barrel-aged, I'm not sure that I would guess so. But knowing that it is, I can pick up on some of the spirit and wood notes. There's a very nice roasty, toasty note on the finish and it doesn't smell bitter at all.
Taste: It's very tasty. The beer is infinitely smooth and it has a long, lingering finish with notes of coffee, charcoal, dark chocolate, and brown bread. The finish is moderately bitter with some licorice, anise, and clove notes coming through. It's honestly hard to say that the barrel aging is influencing this beer so much. After all, the base version of this beer The Empty Sea is also 8% ABV so I'm not sure if that means that this version was aged for a very short time or it was a smaller base beer?
Feel: Medium minus to medium bodied, it has a very smooth and creamy mouthfeel. The beer is nicely carbonated. Overall, it has a bit of a thinner mouthfeel than what I would want from an 8% ABV Baltic Porter.
Overall: While I really like this beer I don't think that it was better than the base beer, which I had in July 2022 and blew me away. It would be interesting to taste them side by side; I think that they would taste pretty similar. If anything, I think that the barrel aging makes this beer more tannic and detracts from the overall smoothness and more gentle and drinkable experience that the base beer has.
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