Brooding Soldier Barrel Aged Dubbel
Brewsters Brewing Company & Restaurant - Eleventh Avenue

 

A wine barrel aged dubbel? Great to see and Albertan brewery experimenting with wine barrels!
Murky orange-y, red colour with a fluffy, rocky tan head. Aroma? Absolutely amazing. It smells like Rodenbachs grand cru blended with a Belgian dark. Tart, oaky and lots of dark fruit. One of the best smells beers I've had in a while. Taste; honestly, kind of disappointing after the phenomenal nose. Very oaky and dry, lots of dark fruit and a nanking cherry tartness with a gorgeous finish of spicey rum and banana. Or alcohol burning or warming and drinks like a 5-6%er. A truly great and complex beer!

Cheers, wordemupg!!

Pours a pretty clear, deep amber/burnt-orange with 1.5 fingers of off-white head. Old wine barrel is big on the nose along with oranges, plums, and faint raisins and toffee. Taste is nice with light fruity and spicy yeast, red wine barrel, plums, and a touch of caramel and spice. Nice stuff. Easy drinking but with connoisseur flavours.

Pours a slightly hazy amber colour with a ruby red hue, thin layer of head with little retention and no real lacing. Nose is loaded with oak, sweet caramel and red wine, hints of dried fruit. Plums and hints of dried apricot flavors, red wine and a solid oak presence. A tad thin but easy drinking and wet. A solid barrel aged brew that truly reflects barrel aged characteristics with a solid base brew to complement the flavor profile. Well done.

355ml bottle poured into over sized wine glass 18/6/15

A clear maroon liquid with lots of bubbles throughout but just a short live finger of tan foam that leaves a couple partial rings of lace

S lots of red wine barrel, some berries and faint smoke, brewers candy, Belgian yeast, sour plum, just a little spicy clove and brown sugar

T more vinous notes then the nose, dark bread, a very faint hint of funk but it works well with it, dried fruit and a little rum raisin, maybe just a little tobacco, tastes good but the nose has a slight edge

M silky, not overly heavy, a little slick after the fact, enough carbonation to fluff it up, vinous finish

O I rather liked this one, the wine barrel works well with the base dubbel, plenty going on and rather easy to drink

Brewsters has been flying under the radar for a while now and brewing interesting stuff, a wine barrel aged dubble? I can't think of another off the top of my head

 

16oz glass at Beer Revolution Oliver Square.

This beer appears a clear, medium bronzed amber colour, with one rather anemic finger of weakly foamy, and generally frothy off-white head, which leaves some hovering raincloud lace around the glass as it quickly abates.

It smells of acridly fruity and grainy caramel malt, a certain musty and meaty earthiness, some generic red wine barrel astringency, tacky yeast, and plain leafy and weedy hops. The taste is bready, doughy caramel malt, a clammy yeastiness, some generic dark orchard fruitiness, soused wood chips, and more understated earthy, weedy, and mildly perfumed hops.

The bubbles are pretty low-key in their bland frothiness, the body a sturdy medium weight, and more or less smooth, a small airy creaminess arising as it warms. It finishes on the near sweet side, as the woodsy red wine essence and inherent maltiness come to blows.

An agreeable enough barrel-aged version of Brewsters' base dubbel - lots going on, but somehow it falls short of yer typical expectations of complexity. Not bad, but maybe a trip back to the iterative drawing board is necessary here.