Bourbon Barrel Rye
Great Lakes Brewing Co.

05/24/25 can @ home

It turns out bourbon mixes well with rye. Who knew?! Deceptively smooth and very drinkable. Head disappears really fast but beer retains enough body that it doesn’t taste flat. A very tasty high ABV brew

Poured this imperial bourbon barrel rye ale out of a 16 oz. can into one of my tulip glasses, this beer pours a clear, dark amber/copper color with a slightly off white head that's about 1/2 inch thick when first poured. Head settles to a thick ring lining the inside of the glass at the beer's surface along with some good sized cluster swirls of film layer surface foam. Decent lacing. Aromas of toasted, bready caramel malts, some rye spice, a bit of vanilla, and bourbon oak along w/ a bit of alcohol. An extremely similar flavor profile, with the aforementioned toasted and bready, caramel malt sweetness that gives way to bourbon oak, boozy goodness along with notable rye spice and a hint of vanilla. No discernible hop presence here as far as my palate is concerned. Good balance of the present flavors, especially as the beer sits and warms up a bit. Has a fairly crisp, smooth, slightly sticky/syrupy, full bodied mouthfeel with moderate carbonation. An enjoyable beer here.

Eric

 

 

 

I will never turn down a rye beer not even if Great Lakes brews it. This is actually a pretty good offering. Nice dark amber color. Not much on the nose. Just some bourbon. Taste is bourbon dominant without much rye presence but still good. I would have preferred more rye forward. Mouthfeel is thin but most bourgeois GLBC stuff is. Overall…I would drink again but wouldn’t go out of my way for it. This is not a great beer but I can’t find a reason to not like it. Rye barrel might have been a better choice but maybe harder to come by and more expensive. A pretty typical GLBC brew, profit over greatness. Jackie O's would have done much better.

16oz can served in a snifter glass. Stamp on bottom of can: 09:07:54 2024 4BT4RHH01.

Appearance: Cloudy/translucent (a little murky) amber-brown, with a thin light tan ring of foam at the edge. No lacing.

Smell: Bourbon barrel (vanilla, boozy), with a notable rye note, and some toasted malt.

Taste: A lot like it smells, but with some sweetness in the middle. There is a mild bitter note at the finish which is combined with all the other flavors and a bit of rye again.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, nicely thick (approaching, but not quite creamy), light carbonation, a little sticky on the teeth, dry finish.

Overall / Drinkability: It seems like this is an attempt at a Ryewine (Barleywine but with a heavy rye base), and it's not overly sweet or overly boozy....but it's strangely not that remarkable either. There is no deepness of any one flavor, it's balanced, but muted I think is a good way to describe it. Alcohol is well hidden. Interesting, but not something I want another of.

 

A: chestnut brown with a tan head.

S: vanilla, caramel, and oak.

T: vanilla up front, a good bit of fruitiness, and caramel in the finish.

M: medium body, lite amount of fine carbonation. Slightly slick

O: overall I like it, but it feels more like a barley wine style to me.

16 ounce can, April 2024 release as stated on the Great Lakes webpage. Thanks to Brutaltruth for this! Served in a Teku, the beer pours a somewhat clear reddish/copper color with about an inch tan head. Head retention and lacing are both decent enough. I like the aroma, the brew smells like dark fruit (mostly cherry), vanilla, bourbon, rye bread, and some caramel. For the most part I think the taste is similar to the aroma, but there's also some oaky flavors noticeable too. I think the rye has more of a kick in the flavor as compared to the aroma. Mouthfeel/body is medium/full, it's a bit creamy and coating with a moderate amount of carbonation. I liked this one, worth picking up if you get the chance!

It was once said that rye has no place in the world of culinary art. But those people never had Great Lakes Bourbon Barrel Rye, and those brewers probably never got that memo anyway.

Pouring surprisingly golden in color, the nearly bright ale rises with a mid-height foam and a smooth and spicy scent of toasted grain, fresh bread, honey and cereal. Sweet with much the same, the first sip leans in with caramel, honey, simple sugars, vanilla cream and candied nuttiness.

As the flavors roll along, the lightness of the session allows the rye character to reveal all of its better attributes through the simple sweetness. Lightly toasty-sweet, caramelized and savory, the rye offers its special earthen grit and a peppery taste that bleeds into the bourbon flavors quite well. Caramel, coconut, toasted oak and vanilla from the wood adds its own unique bourbon influence that both balances the rye spice and adds complexity and charm.

Full bodied but remarkably smooth, the session starts similar to traditional roggenbier but finishes with a smooth, spicy and soothing taste in a long, warming honey-like aftertaste.

Light brown in color. Tan head. Bourbon nose comes through strong. Taste is sweet and bourbon like but not as strong as the nose. Decent flavors. Nice warmth
On throat.

Pours a translucent, coppery red with minimal foam, very pretty. Smell is malt, caramel with a dose of rum, more than bourbon. Taste is more complex than the smell, with the bourbon very prominent from beginning to end. Vanilla, cherry/raisin fruit and almost molasses lead. Rye and malt come through in the middle and end, though mildly compared to the bourbon. The flavor tails off smoothly, tasting more like a whisky cocktail than a beer. This is pleasant, and hardly surprising for a medium body beer with this high of an ABV. Feel matches the trailing flavors, light on carbonation, heavy on spirits. All in all, this is a tasty beer that ends like a cocktail. Found it very enjoyable, but it also fit my expectations.

 

9/9/24 Poured from a 16 oz can purchased from the Washington Beer Store in Washington PA.

Lovely cherry-cider in color. Slightly opaque . No head, just a few tight bubbles that dissipated quickly.

Aroma is quite lovely. Syrupy sweetness, a hint of toast, and very distinctly bourbon.

Nice astringency hits right away in the mouth, malty sweetness overtakes, and a gorgeous bitter finish at the end, with just a slight sweet medicinal linger.

16oz can
L: deep & dark amber body; thin tan head fades quickly
S: caramel, toffee, rum & raisin, bourbon, spicy rye, oak, brown sugar
T: brown sugar, toasted grain, spicy & earthy rye, boozy bourbon, oak, vanilla, toffee, earthy hops
F: full body, modest carbonation, sweeter finish with warming alcohol
O: really fun beer to try. Could have been better with a rye barrel?