What Beer Are You Drinking Now? #2016

Good morning BA, have a great Saturday! Not much going on today as usual. Need to clean up around the apartment again.

6.5 year revisit. Was my 500th review. This was awesome. Great head retention/lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of big sour/tart/tangy cherries, fruit skin/pits, lemon, green apple, red grape, hay, straw, grass, pepper, oak, wheat, and cracker; with light notes of vanilla, leathery/musty funk, white vinegar, and yeast/oak earthiness. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tart/sourness, fruit tang, and yeast/oak spiciness on the finish. Medium-high carbonation, light-medium body, and moderately crisp finishing. Balanced grainy malts, lactic acid, fruit tang, and oak tannins in the mouthfeel. Moderate increasing acidic/tangy/tannic dryness, touch of pucker and not overwhelming. Pretty refreshing, and not overly lactic. Really outstanding stuff. A lot less lactic/puckering than I remember, but then again I had a flat bottle at the time. Perfectly balanced between cherries, Brett/Lacto complexity, oak, with a solid pale/wheat malt backbone to balance acidity. Still got another bottle of this, 1 year old as of last week. 4.15


Scotch barrel edition. This was really awesome, you need to love scotch for this one. Great head retention/lacing on the glass. Aromas are pretty much all peated/smoked scotch; with some underlying milk chocolate, coconut, cocoa, vanilla, and toasted oak. Flavors of huge milk chocolate, caramel, coconut, vanilla, toffee, brown sugar, maple, molasses, wood/peat smoke, toasted oak, leather, tobacco, and brine; with light notes of cocoa, coffee, raisin, and fig. Light-moderate whiskey/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and medium-full body; very creamy/silky malt mouthfeel with a fair amount oak tannins. Light-moderate increasing tannic dryness. A bit rough but dangerously smooth sipping. Mildly warming 15%, zero booze. Got better/smoother as it warmed. This is definitely 50/50 character between scotch and No Rules. Worth a shot if you love Islay scotch, you are going to hate it if not. I was a fan. Looking forward to trying the rum barrel one in the next few weeks. 4.1


Cheers

 

Amazing as usual this year! Aromas and flavors of huge mango, melon, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, guava, berry, grapefruit, tangerine, lemon zest, orange peel, citrus rind, pepper, and pine hops; with moderate honey and spicy rye bread malt balance; and herbal, floral, grassy hops earthiness. Good sized pine, citrus rind, herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium-plus bodied with balanced bready/grainy malts and sticky/resin/rindy hops in the mouthfeel. Moderate increasing resin/rind dryness, minimal hop astringency. Very mildly warming ABV, dangerously smooth. Insane dankness across the board. Glad I got a 2 6 packs for sure, might get another one. This is basically just imperial Born Yesterday IMO, very similar if not the same hops. Ekuanot, Galaxy, Simcoe, and Mosaic was the first batch, probably similar here. This has all of the same dankness at a much higher ABV, while remaining well attenuated and not overly sweet for over 11%. Mosaic and Ekuanot are my favorite hops.


This is tasting delicious. This was my last bottle. Flavors of big apricot, plum, pear, apple, honey, brown sugar, cracker, corn, biscuit, vanilla, bourbon, toasted oak, and coconut; with lighter notes of caramel, toffee, herbal/floral/peppery hops, and yeasty earthiness. Mild booze in the aromas as it warms. Light-moderate herbal/piney hop bitterness and bourbon/oak tannin spice on the finish. Medium-plus bodied; balanced bready/grainy malt, sticky hops, and oak tannins in the mouthfeel. Touch of slick/silky notes from the barrel. Lightly increasing bitter/tannic dryness. Never astringent. Mildly increasing warmth of 14.2%, minimal barrel booziness. Dangerously smooth sipping. Really great showcase of the barrel with some nice malt complexities. Not too hoppy, and the yeast wasn't too fruity either; but added nice balanced fruity notes, vaguely similar to an English barleywine. Very unique, but really enjoyable. Smoothed out nicely on the booze after 9 months. Still some 750s around, won't be buying any. Was worth the 4 pack, but not impressive enough to get more.


Cheers