Category Archives: Review

Sometimes amateur, sometimes professional, reviews of local, national, and international beer.

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Schell’s Cracks a Tallboy Just for the Current – Schell’s The Current Beer

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Local music needs a local beer. No other local brewery has more history than Schell’s and no other local radio station does more for Minnesota music than The Current. These two hometown heroes have teamed up to bring the you a brew to enjoy while The Current provides the summer soundtrack. Together they have created Schell’s The Current Beer.

Hitting stores close to it’s kick off event in mid-May Schell’s repurposes Zommerfest exclusively for The Current. This is a summer beer with perfect depth. The Current beer is a Kölsch style that some find lighter and crisper than the usual style and it boasts some healthy citrus and wheat notes in it’s 16 oz. cans.
Continue reading Schell’s Cracks a Tallboy Just for the Current – Schell’s The Current Beer →

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Summit Brewing releases new seasonal beer: Frost Line Rye

Summit Brewing Company announced the release of Frost Line Rye, an in-between-seasons seasonal beer for late winter. Frost Line Rye is available in beer coolers and pubs starting this week.

Summit Brewing Frost Line Rye AleThis is Summit’s fifth seasonal beer, and it will be released between Winter Ale and Maibock, offering a refreshing flavor to break winter’s icy grip and hasten the spring thaw. The suggested food pairings are equally rejuvenating: jerk chicken and pork, south Indian curry, pepper jack cheese and Irish Salmon.

“We’ve had our four seasonal brews for a long time,” said Damian McConn, Head Brewer at Summit. “But as these winters seem to get longer and longer, we thought we would introduce a beer that helps folks make it to spring with their sanity intact.”

The ale is bursting with the warm, spicy goodness of malted rye with hints of chocolate, toast, and caramel. The blend of hops – including a new experimental variety – lends a citrusy, floral hop aroma and flavor with an enjoyably bitter and dry finish.
Frost Line Rye:

Malts: US pale, US pale rye, US caramel rye, German chocolate rye, US flaked rye
Hops: Summit, Citra, dry-hopped: Citra, Experimental hop #01210
ABV: 5.8%
IBUs: 55
Yeast: Ale Strain

Review

Badger Hill Brewing’s Cherry Poppin’ Daddy

Badger Hill Brewing Cherry Double Dunkel
Badger Hill’s Cherry Double Dunkel

Wandering with a Minnesota Brewery

wan·der·lust: a strong desire to travel; an impulse to wander

I’m a beer lover that lives in the Twin Cities and I’m a husband and a father to a 4 month old. Wanderlust is not in my vocabulary. Hell, it’s not in most people’s vocabulary. One Saturday night I found myself at the local liquor store with the vicarious notion that I was 25 again and looking for something tall, blonde, and sweet. Well, I found it in a lonely 750 ml bottle of Badger Hill Brewing Company’s Cherry Double Dunkel sitting in the cooler and decided that would be perfect.

Badger Hill’s Cherry Double Dunkel is #2 in their Wanderlust series of limited, small batch brews. If

you’re into the whole style thing, you might categorize the base beer as a Weizenbock. The Beer Judge Certification Program (bjcp.org) lists a Weizenbock as style 15c and describes it as “A dunkel-weizen beer brewed to bock or doppelbock strength”. Now, let’s forget style categories. After all, this is Wanderlust.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: I thought about the right glass to pour this beer into and a pilsner or hefe glass was the obvious choice, but instead I grabbed my favorite $1 Ikea snifter. (We don’t get too fancy at my house). It poured a murky, orange color with a nice finger of off-white head. There is something mesmerizing about watching an unfiltered beer swirling around in your glass.

Nose / Smell: I immediately picked up banana and a very slight smokiness. A bit of honey and vanilla were hidden in there, as well. After a few sips, I started to smell the tartness from the cherries.

Flavor: This beer starts out bright and crisp, followed by a pleasant, natural tart fruit-flavor. The cherries kick in with a sour note towards the end along with the ever-present wheat flavor.

Mouthfeel: The Cherry Double Dunkel has an interesting mix of feeling creamy and, at the same time, refreshing. It’s 8% ABV produces a warm, but not overwhelming alcohol feel.

Questions for the Brewer

After tasting this beer, I had the opportunity to ask Brock Krekelberg, Co-Founder of Badger Hill, a few questions:

Tell us a little bit about the beer and the brewing process.

“The beer started out as a request from our partner Brent to create a beer that utilized Cherries from his wife’s family orchard in Door County, WI. We experimented over the years with a number of recipes, some better than others. We have a love of German wheat beers, and thought to take one of our favorite dunkel recipes, upped to weizenbock levels, as a base. We loved the result. The fruity, spice and caramel tones of the weizenbock are a perfect complement to the tartness that comes from the cherries. Each component adds/changes the character of the other in a great way. It’s unfiltered and unfined, so it pours a very opaque. It tricks you into thinking you will be tasting a thick, caramel sweet beer, but it is actually quite crisp and tart.”

How do you feel about the outcome?

“We are very happy with the outcome! We wanted to bring something out to craft beer lovers that is new, something they have never tried before. We were looking to create a special brew that tastes fantastic, and we hope people agree. It’s different from the type of beers we have come out with so far, and that is something we also wanted.”

What would you say about local beer to someone out-of-state who plans to visit MN?

“Minnesota craft breweries are creating fantastic and ever greater craft beers. It is truly a destination state for craft brews. Almost every style fan be found, and some that you have never heard of. The craft brewers here in Minnesota are extremely passionate about what they are doing, and it shows. Long standing breweries like Schell and Summit continue to make outstanding beers and are launching amazing new ones. And new breweries are crafting wonderful styles as well as pushing innovation. It is a great time to be a beer fan in Minnesota.”

What is next in the Wanderlust series?

“We plan on Cherry Double Dunkel to be our annual special release. Wanderlust series will always offer up something new, and the next in the series should come out in late spring. It is still a secret, so stay tuned. Our first in the Wanderlust Series was a White IPA, the second was this Cherry Double Dunkel, and so the next beer in the series could be anything!”

Afterthought

Cherry Double Dunkel is a dynamic, refreshing beer that I could drink all year round. This is a beer that I would be proud to bring to a party and enjoy with friends and family. In fact, I brought a bottle with me to Iowa for Thanksgiving at my mother- in-law’s house and it was a hit! I’m so glad to hear that they have plans to release this beer annually.

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Reviewbicle: Thanksgiving Special

Beer Reviewbicle: Thanksgiving Special

November 2013

Dan Belfry and Jon Buck

www.brewbicle.com

Well it is that time of year when leaves start to turn colors, the air gets cooler, ugly sweater party invites start to materialize, and also when the elusive Turduckin appears from the woods and ends up on your dining room table. To celebrate such a festive season without beer would be unheard of. We’d like to pull together a list of beers that we think will add to your family’s celebration, your enjoyment of your family, and the seasonal meal we hope you all share together.

Knowing that everyone has their own unique culinary traditions we have stuck to some very traditional and stereotypical offerings to make our suggestions. Hopefully you can use these as a starting point and apply as needed to fit in your own celebration of thanks. We’ve also tried to keep this list as local as possible, to show support of our awesome MN craft beer scene.

APPETIZERS:

food beer squareCan range from cheese and crackers, to meatballs, to egg rolls. This pairing, having such a wide degree of accompanying foods, we think would be best to pair according to flexibility and neutrality. We wanted to suggest some things that are, easy drinking, and have a well-rounded character that would go with any and all of the apps out on your table. Plus you’ve got a whole day of eating and drinking ahead of you at this point. Think marathon.

Schell’s Pils – Crisp and grassy, tastes of biscuit, and hints of lemon citrus. Serves as a great back-drop and palette cleanser for a wide variety of pre-meal treats

Lift Bridge Farm Girl – Heavier on the grassy – grainy flavors, and citrus notes but still a good sharp cleanliness and healthy dose of refreshing. This is a versatile Saison as it is not too aggressive in its’ funk or yeast flavors.

FIRST COURSE:

senor wong phoAssuming a salad of some variety, perhaps some mixed greens with some candied nuts and strong cheese such as a bleu or goat. Maybe arugula topped with prosciutto and parmesan. Perhaps something with fruit, strawberries or raspberries and a vinaigrette. All sound lovely and offer different pairing opportunities to kick things off while sitting around the table.

For the nutty/cheese salad:

Odell 90 Shilling – This scotch ale offers a sweet and malty character with a lot of depth and the rich flavor would hold up well to a strong cheese.

Surly Furious – The resinous and fruity character of the hops and bready malts will do wonders with the strong cheese and will stand-up to the all nuttiness this salad can throw at it. Plus it’s a hometown favorite, how can you go wrong?

For the Fruity tart salad:

Indeed Day Tripper – The crisp clean character and friendly presence of hops will balance with acidity and complement the fruits. It will also hold its’ own with some milder cheeses.

MAIN COURSE:

Ah here we are! The main course, likely a smorgasbord of Turkey, gravy, cranberries, mashed potatoes, au gratin potatoes, stuffing, and the infamous green bean casserole. Plus many others, the common element here is most of these things are savory and/or salty in character. They are rich and strong flavors plus you’ve made it to the main event so time to indulge in some stronger and layered beers to match the food before you.
Summit Brewing Biere De Garde
Summit Biere de Garde – With a strong malt profile, amazing biscuit flavors, hints of caramel and faint inklings of cherries this is a well-rounded and wonderful pairing to your main course. Plus at 8.5% packs a decent punch and will get your digestion working on that bird.

Dangerous Man Belgian Golden Strong – Hopefully this is available leading up to the big day, get yourself a growler fill. Then watch as this deliciously complex blend of yeast, hops and alcohol meld in a heavenly manner with the heavy and rich foods on your table.

Stone Arrogant or Double or Oaked Bastard – Dark ruby color, high ABV and a complexity of dark fruit, hops and caramel/toffee make this one another fine choice to wash down that turducken. See if Uncle Eddy isn’t face-down in his mashed potatoes after this beer.

DESSERT

Let’s assume some of our favorites are being served; Apple pie, Pumpkin pie, and French Silk pie (we like pie). Each present a different opportunity.

Apple Pie:

Trappistes Rochefort 10: Let this strong Belgian beauty make friends with your apple pie. The dark fruits will complement that tart apple and if served alamode the cream will graciously carry away the alcohol to the delight of your taste buds.

Backwoods Bastard: Apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and bourbon, our work here is done.

Pumpkin Pie:

Southern Tier Pumking – The quintessential pumpkin beer to accompany the quintessential Thanksgiving desert.

French Silk Pie:

Founders Porter – More chocolaty/sweet and less roasty than most of its Porter counterparts means it will really play up the rich and thick nature of the pie. It will also layer a nice coffee flavor in the mix. Why isn’t there Coffee French Silk pie?

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Beer Reviewbicle: Bell’s Brewery Third Coast Old Ale

September 2013
Dan Belfry and Jon Buck
www.brewbicle.com

Fall is really the start of what we like to refer to as beer season and that undeniable chill in the air brings about an instinctual desire for bigger beers. This is also the time of year for football, chili and some very notable beer releases. One that should be hitting our area soon is Bell’s Third Coast Old Ale. According to the Bell’s website, this is how the beer is described: Third Coast Old Ale focuses on malt, offering notes of burnt caramel & other earthy malt flavors. Designed with vintage aging in mind, the malt aspect is matched to a heavy complement of hops. Sharply bitter at first, this will fold into the malt character over time and balance out the maltiness.

Sounds right up our alley, doesn’t it? We’ve opened a bottle from series #9970 (bottled Nov. 3, 2010, 10.2% ABV) and #11400 (bottled Oct. 12, 2012, 10.2% ABV). It should also be noted that the shelf life is listed as ‘unlimited’ for both of these. As with our selection last month, this seems to be one that has the legs to age for some time and we may very well be ahead of this beers’ prime.

Bell’s Brewery Third Coast Old Ale

Reviewbicle: Bell's Brewery Third Coast Old Ale
The object of our desires, Bell’s Brewery Third Coast Old Ale

Appearance (’12): There is a small amount of beige colored head, which only includes tiny bubbles that float and gather at the edges of the glass. When held up to the light, the color is a deep brown with red undertones, revealing a deep amber sap color. It is as clear as can be on the initial pour and there is no detectable sediment or yeast/sea monkeys.

Appearance (’10): There is very little carbonation visible on this one and the tiny bubbles of the ’12 are far less present here. The small amount that does surface has very little space to congregate anywhere other than at the edges of the glass. The color and clarity are identical to the ’12 and so is the absence of sea monkeys.

Aroma (’12):  With a little agitation the beer reveals some layered aromas, buttery biscuit, honey, a full complement of grains, booze and faint cranberry or cherry in the back ground. The biscuit comes up first and is deep and rich (hence the buttery, though not actually smelling like butter) and warming. Honey is predominant within the sweet aromas, dry and unrefined/raw. The honey notes work well with the floral grainy aroma that follows. Booze and fruit finish things off with a sharp and tart aroma.

Aroma (’10):  With very little carb to agitate and help my olfactory sense, one has to get right up in there to get a good sense of what’s happening. Most evident is a more predominate fruit profile and the biscuit has turned into bread and softer smell of grains. The honey has taken a turn as well, taking on some deeper, sweeter caramelized notes. Still present, but with a diminished role, is the tinge of alcohol.

Taste/Mouthfeel (’12): A surprising amount of hop are here, leaving an immediate bitterness and finishing with a resinous dryness. The biscuit is there for sure, like a club cracker, rich and billowy. The honey sweetness is there too and it’s dry as well, leaving the tongue somewhat raw. The mouthfeel is thin, but booze and bitter fruit linger on the tongue and nose. This is a fairly well rounded beer at this point; however, the bitterness is really making its mark. At this point, we’re not able to determine if the bitter dryness is from hops, sugars or the fruitiness which caps everything off. Either way, it’s a good beer, but clearly has some time to go before it hits a really well rounded profile and has a wow factor.

Taste/Mouthfeel (’10): Ooooh the sweet flavor has really come into its’ own and takes a front seat, by comparison to the ‘12 anyway. The grains really take on a more caramel soaked breadiness and there are no detectable hoppy notes to run interference on the sweetness. Caramel kicks things off and permeates as the malt and grains become present, while the caramel lingers and carries through to the end. It is rich and round and full, and the fruit at the end has really mellowed, finishing in a pleasantly un-bitter way. The taste is thicker, but the beer itself isn’t. Plus, it hangs around in a sticky awesome way for us to enjoy.

Overall Comparison (’12 and ‘10): The ’12, at almost a year old, is still bitter and rough around the edges, but shows signs of potential. We are always to making some educated guesses when trying new beers, or deciding when to open something from the Brewbicle, and these versions showed some signs. This one has a lot of the great hallmarks: sweet, boozy and layered with flavor. While the ’12 probably wasn’t the best beer, it is likely because it hasn’t had enough cellar time, and we can say this with a bit more confidence having had tried the ’10. The ’10, in our opinion, is on the way to great things. The amount of change between the ’12 and ’10 will likely mean that we will hold on to the ‘10s for another 2 years and see what they are taste like, and then decide if we need to drink them all or if we should wait even longer. We are looking forward to the direction this will go and are happy we’ve got some more in our cellars.

Cheers!

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Reviewbicle: Cuvee Van de Keizer Blauw

brewbicle logoBeer Reviewbicle: Cuvee Van de Keizer Blauw “Grand Cru of the Emperor”
May 2013
Dan Belfry and Jon Buck
www.brewbicle.com

This is our first outdoor Reviewbicle and with a special guest, MN Beer Activists’ very own Andrew Schmitt. Both of these facts make this a special tasting and one that reinforces the notion that beers are best shared with friends and alongside a grill (weather permitting). We urge you all to consider this when you are amassing cellars, as these beers do no good if not shared and enjoyed with those whose company you keep.

Cuvee Van de Keizer Blauw has a lengthy, but interesting, story on the bottle; I will not re-hash it here, but it’s worth mentioning, as we always like a good story.  It is classified as a Belgian Strong Dark Ale and with a Belgian address on the label, 11% ABV and dark brown color, who am I to argue? As promised last month, we’ll be reviewing a ’09 and ’12 for your reading pleasure and to break us from our ’10/’12 rut.

CUVEE VAN DE KEIZER BLAUW

Appearance (’12): This corked and caged beauty pours a lovely deep henna color and develops a light and velvety cream-colored head, which dissipates quickly and some lacing remains on the glass after a nice swirl. Minimal sediment appears in the glass and has a nice clarity to the body when held up to the light. It is a rich and regal looking beer from the get go, but it could be that the glimmering label is swaying my opinion.

IMG_20130426_193242Appearance (’09): A friendly debate starts when putting these side-by-side about which one is redder. I will spare you the banter and say that they are virtually the same color, as a compromise was made by the tasters, in the interest of maintaining friendships. The head that formed was indistinguishable from the ’12 vintage; it was rather velvety, with a rich, espresso-like foam and was creamy in color, which was quickly fading.

Aroma (’12):  This one starts with a very sweet aroma of mouthwatering candied sugars. Well, I guess it was mouthwatering for those with a sweet tooth. Dark fruits come in to play as well, hinting at plums, raisins and cherry, which was the most forward scent. There’s also a distinctive alcohol burn, as the 11% is not hiding with this guy; it is there and you know that you’re getting into something with some heat.

Aroma (’09):  Three years down the line, the nose has shifted quite noticeably. Our olfactory venture started with lots of fruity esters, as banana and pear stood out to us. The darker fruits found in the ’12 were there but had fallen back slightly and cherry still held the prominent position. Most noticeably behind the development of fruity esters was the drop in alcohol presence and the deepening of the aromatic finish. On the tail end, the earthy notes of tobacco and leather were noticeable.

Taste/Mouthfeel (’12): Taste kicks-off fairly sweet, the candied sugars and dark fruits mingle creating a rich and full flavor that is highly enjoyable and surely fit for an Emperor. However, the mingling is quite suddenly interrupted by the 11% giant in the room, which seems to swallow them up, while leaving the sugars behind. This results in a sweet, if not slightly, stinging finish. The sweet on the back-end bears much more resemblance to toffee and caramel than it does to fruit. The carbonation levels played a great role in the flavor progression here, as its’ soft and smooth bubbles complimented the rich and deep flavors quite nicely. They facilitated a very balanced and enjoyable glass of beer.
IMG_20130426_193721
Taste/Mouthfeel (’09): The ’09 vintage also begins sweet, but less aggressively so, as it is more subtle and rounded. The complexity has simplified a bit, highlighting cherry elements which remain present throughout. The dark fruit flavor doesn’t get pushed away by alcohol this go-around and meets the tail-end flavors of leather and tobacco in a most pleasing way. The contrast of fruit and leather is a great combination and has achieved a wonderful relationship at this point. The carbonation, while visually similar, has begun to wane in the mouthfeel. This resulted in a thicker and arguably more luxurious texture than the ’12 and played wonderfully to the rich flavors found in the beer.

Overall Comparison (’12 and ‘09): Both of these beers are wonderful right off the bat and a good amount of complexity and depth of flavor resides in both. Clearly, these are high quality beers, no matter how you slice either vintage.  The ’12 starts as such a wonderfully complex beer and hits some of the great fruit notes and candied sugars you’d expect from a Belgian ale, and does so despite a strong presence of alcohol. Without a doubt, this is one that could be enjoyed right away. Having it side-to-side with its’ 3 year-old brother leads us to believe that great things are happening for this regal ale. It has all the hallmarks of a good aging candidate and the bottle states it can age for 10 years. The elements seem to be simplifying as time goes on, but don’t confuse that for a diminishing of interest. The simplicity highlights some great flavor contrast and layering which previously were shrouded with elements only beginning to harmonize. In our minds this is a great cellaring beer, and one that we will personally be investing more time in. The bottle is easily available and provides some nice diversity for a cellar, which may be leaning in a one-dimensional stout/barleywine sort of direction.

Cheers!

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Reviewbicle: Two Brothers Bare Tree

By Dan Belfry and Jon Buck

www.brewbicle.com

 photo(3)

We decided to celebrate the arrival of spring with a barelywine that has a little spring in its’ step. This beer is clocking in at around 11% ABV and we were excited to try it! Two Brothers makes some great beer and this smaller (12.7oz) corked and caged offering should be no exception. We’ve got another ’10 and ’12; I swear we have other vintages, so look for them next month!

TWO BROTHERS BARE TREE BAERLEYWINE STYLE WEISS BEER

Appearance (’12): There is almost no head, a half a finger at most, which quickly dissipates into a thin white foam floating around the glass. It pours a golden hue with some red undertones, the clarity is high aside from a healthy amount of Sea Monkeys floating around. It should be mentioned that we had a guest taster this week who didn’t think very highly of the Sea Monkeys, we told her that beer was a sort of dude yogurt, with those active cultures and what not. It’s science.

Appearance (’10): Holy Bubbling Barleywine Batman! This guy’s got some carb to it, and it’s not going anywhere. A thick foamy head forms upon pouring and the foamy pudding lingers and loses little body as we review. The clarity on this one isn’t as high, has a slight haze and larger Sea Monkeys floating around. The color is almost the same as its’ younger sibling.

photo(2)

Aroma (’12): Smokey and meaty are forefront here, which caught us a little by surprise. It was described aptly as beef jerky by our guest taster, and there is also a floral bouquet with a sharp tang to it. We are attributing these to both the wheat and yeast in this brew. A slight alcohol presence bites at the end, but nothing overpowering.

Aroma (’10): It appears that carbonation isn’t going to be the only drastic difference between these two. The nose here is dominated by fruit and flowers, dry and sweet like a cider or champagne. Green apple tartness stands out as the nose evolves when the beer warmed up. It smells great and we can hardly wait to try this guy.

Taste/Mouthfeel (’12): Not a ton of complexity to this tasting. It starts off with strong wheat presence, with a floral tang and some sharp crispness and earthy undertones. It then moves to some sweet notes with a hints of honey and caramel, which gives no hint of an 11% beer, as the alcohol is all but undetectable here. Finishes somewhat dry with some lingering fruit notes. The lack of carbonation lets the sweet and fruit linger which personally I found to be the best part, so I’m okay with that. Barleywine style Weiss beer/Wheatwine isn’t something we’re very versed in, so not sure what the level of carbonation is supposed to be, but this seems a little low.

Taste/Mouthfeel (’10): This one, while also leaning toward simplicity, leads us down an entirely different path. It starts with an assertive sweetness, which is eased out by a green apple tartness, and leads nicely to a path of dry sweetness. While this is reminiscent of a green apple tart dryness, this is decidedly sweeter, and honey marches us to the end of this flavor profile. The amount of carbonation evident in the lingering head isn’t very present in the body. The bubbles were quite fine in the head and had little effect on the tongue and was almost like a cask beer in terms of carbonation. By contrast this was nice, as it let the flavors again linger and move slowly away.

Overall Comparison (’12 and ‘10): These beers landed quite a distance from one another on the flavor spectrum and in terms of carbonation. Oddly, the more recent vintage was the less carbonated of the two. We’re not sure if the vast differences are explained by an off batch from either year, or if this really highlights the amount of change that can happen for this beer over the course of two years. One thing we can say with certainty is that we’ll continue aging this; if the ’10 vintage is any indication, this one is a prime candidate for aging. The ’10 really blossomed in two years, as fruits and honey were abundant and delicious. Both were highly drinkable, don’t get me wrong, but the ’10 was such a gem I would recommend that you hang on to whatever year you have of these. Both are around 11% and I couldn’t have told you they were much above 6%. Kudos to Two Brothers on this one.

Cheers!    

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Reviewbicle: Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout

'10 and '12 CW BBS
’10 and ’12 CW BBS

We’re glad to be back for our second month! This is really a great reason for us to start digging in our cellars and finding beer we’ve been saving for one reason or another. The debates over what to open are almost as fun as what we actually drink and, in this case, spilled into the tasting itself (no pun intended). This week we delve into an offering from our beer-loving neighbors to the East, Central-Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout. We have again decided to go with a ’10 and ’12 vintage for this review, which should highlight the development for us. So, without further ado:

 

CENTRAL WATERS BOURBON BARREL STOUT

Appearance (’12): The pour results in a healthy amount of light ivory head, which quickly dissipates and leaves some signs of lacing. There is very little transparency in this one; when held to the light, the color is a Black/Brown body and reveals some red edges.
Appearance (’10): The pour results in an almost indiscernible difference from the ’12 and the main difference that occurs here is in the color. The ’10 has noticeably more transparency, resulting in a lighter brown body and greater red coloring at the edges of the glass. Not sure what might cause this difference, perhaps recipe variation?

Aroma (’12): Vanilla and brown sugar are forefront and are followed by the dark fruit of raisins. The nose finishes with a bourbon smell and even a slight, but sharp, burn.
Aroma (’10): Bready grains kick things off here, with notably less vanilla sweetness; however, there is actually more dark fruit aroma present after the vanilla gave way. The bourbon burn experienced with the ’12 is still there, but not quite as sharp.

Taste/Mouthfeel (’12): Opens up with sweet flavors of vanilla, raisins and plums, but not in an overwhelming way. The sweetness has some real depth and restraint, and it isn’t cloyingly so. The sweet is entirely surpassed by bourbon and an accompanying burn. The bourbon is backed up to by some grains, which give a dark chocolate and decidedly dry finish. There is a lingering burn, as if you had just sipped some bourbon, which we suspect is tamed by the sweet dryness of the malts. The carbonation, while not visually apparent, was more evident in mouthfeel and gave a cleaner finish to the flavors. The body on the ’12 was less viscous as well and between the carbonation and viscosity, it didn’t allow flavors to linger quite as long as in the ’10.
Taste/Mouthfeel (’10): This one starts sweet as well, but more subdued, with little detectable vanilla and a shorter period of fruit flavor. The transition from fruit to bourbon is a lot smoother here, with less distance between the two extremes of the flavors as they meld. The bourbon never reaches the “in-your-face” flavor of the ’12 and has little detectable burn. The dry, chocolate flavor returns at the end, which makes it the flavor that lingers. In contrast to the ’12, a fuller body and less carbonation gives this beer the ability to linger and fade off gradually.

Overall Comparison (’12 and ‘10): Our discussion about this tasting led us to realize some important factors to consider when aging beer. Jon and I differ as to our preference between the ’10 and ’12. Jon favors the aggressive bourbon and barrel flavors present in the ’12, as he likes the assertiveness and contrast with the sweetness that defines the early part of the ‘12’s flavor. However, I prefer the monochromatic subtlety which defines the transition of flavors in the ’10. It should also be noted that Jon is a more versed and avid bourbon/whiskey/scotch drinker than myself. I do enjoy these beverages as much as the next person, but almost invariably order them on the rocks. There is also the factor that I don’t really enjoy these drinks until after the first few sips, as my palette adjusts to the burn that accompanies them. Jon likes his straight-up, and seems to relish in its’ intensity.

This leads to an important question which you should ask yourself before deciding on aging barrel-aged beers, specifically bourbon barrels: will I enjoy it more now or later? Jon and I both liked each beer, that should not be misconstrued, but we favored them at different ages. Jon will continue to age his CW BBS, but may have a few more fresh before putting them away. My plan is to continue my drink one and cellar three regimen, and most likely age them longer than Jon will.

This is what makes cellaring great: being able to evaluate and strategize your cellar contents and tailor it to your palate’s preferences. Although, that could just the beer geek in me talking too…

Cheers!