Sebago Single Batch Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine 2013

2013's Sebago Bourbon Barrel Barleywine.

Kind of an unconventional report, but given how in love with this beer I am, I thought I'd note:

I think this beer wants a year or two of aging, and I say this on the weird strength of drinking a bottle over the course of 2 days.

As with the 2010 version (which was an underdog, underpriced, and fucking amazing), it was delicious "fresh" (ie right out of the barrel; lots of oak influence). However, unlike the 2010 (which I loved for about a year after bottling--bought a case or so), it seems to have moved into an awkward period of less oak, lots of booze, somewhat muddled malt.

Tonight, I drank the 2nd half of a bottle I opened last night and then stored in the fridge with a wine stopper. The oxidation really opened up the malt flavor. I'm very convinced that the exposure to oxygen last night is decent approximation of what slow, graceful aging will better do to the beer.

I rarely advocate cellaring these days, but if you're hanging on to a few sebago barleywines (and maybe you are; they had a good deal of buzz around them this time around), I'd strongly suggest hanging on to them a bit longer. The oak is fading, and the malt complexity hasn't caught up (plus it's still hot as hell).

So ends my ceremoniously capitalized post.