New Beer Sunday (Week 681)

It still counts as Sunday night, right?

Reclusa is a BA blend from Fort George done to honour the anniversary of Bottleworks, a local bottle shop here in Seattle. It's a blend of a couple of different base beers aged in a couple of different types of barrels.



The pour is that beautiful molasses almost-black that I love in my stouts with a clean body that if it were a touch darker would remind me of obsidian. Decent finger-worth of creamy brown head that settles in nicely and leaves decent lacing as I drink.

I don't know why, but I was a little bit apprehensive about this one going into it. I think I may just be teetering on the verge of some anxiety stuff again, but I was worried about this bottle for some reason.
Well, once I united sniffer and snifter my fears were allayed. The nose presented as sweet oak with some vanilla and dark fruit and chocolate. The barreling is not shy, but it does not overassert itself either. Really really enticing aroma here.

Flavour begins much the same as the aroma focusing on the classic sweet dark flavours presented by some chocolate and dark fruits, mingled with some old ale flavours of tobacco and leather. Stage two presents a subtle counterbalance in bitter char and some red wine influence almost. This paves the way for the barrels to really assert themselves, which carries through the finish.

Smoothe but with a decent bit of carbonation, the first half a glass or so of this one was music to my taste buds. I was a big big fan. In the course of writing the review I consumed most of that glass in short order and I felt my enjoyment of it starting to fade a bit. Some elements creeped in the corners I wasn't quite as fond of and I considered starting over from scratch with the whole review.
So I put it down for a minute. Started writing the first half of this post. Took small sips occasionally. And the magic was back. This is a beer that rewards slow contemplation and transforms under duress. As a slow sipper I am loving this one. Working through it in mouthfulls I was transfixed initially, but grew weary in fairly short order.
Haul Hint #1.5: Sip this one slow. It is it's best form. (bonus hint... 5.5?: there's multiple hints hidden in this post... sort of. Imagein what you could find if you tried to read my mind [turns out not much of interest... just a lot of insecurity and unnecessarily complicated twisting])

I'm not sure where exactly to insert this tasting note: the website says that it is a blend of different barrels and base beers blah blah blah, but one of the barrels they list is a pinot noir barrel (among primarily various bourbon barrels elseways). I doubt I would have picked it up on my own without reading the website, but I feel pretty comfortable observing that it is this specific barrel that lingers through the end, and builds up especially the more I drink. I'm into it in theory and in practice, but I do feel like it is contributing a decent amount of the characteristic that makes me prefer small doses meted out over time (slow sipping) as opposed to trying to take it all in at once.



Cheers all y'all

 

The Pistol! How cool was that!? Bob McAdoo too, used to cheer for and curse at him when he was a Knick.

Chris Mullin was a friend of my first wife's youngest brother, Saint Johns was about a mile from where we lived in Queens at the time. Used to love watching them shoot around with each other. She was from a family with sad history of heart disease that disqualified all three of her star baseball player brothers from being able to go pro, though all three were drafted. All those brothers died mid forties, as did their dad. She was Scottish heritage, and to say that her family introduced me to love of the stronger types of finer fermentables would be an understatement,