Barrel House Boss Cox Double Dark IPA

Brewed by Barrel House Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Cincinnati, Ohio USA

Bottle sample at a Barrel House tasting at Teller’s in Hyde Park. Pours a clear dark brown with reddish tints and a small off-white head. Aroma of hops, citrus, dark fruits, malts, nuts, wood, and booze. The flavor follows suit pretty well, with a nice hop bitterness and malt backbone complemented by citrus and darker fruits, mixed nuts, and some warming alcohol. Medium bodied, with a good mix of sweet and bitter. I couldn’t help but think of this as a kind of Imperial APA when I was drinking it, so I think the American Strong Ale classification is accurate. Very good, unique beer.

12 oz bottle via Mys Swap 4.0 (thanks alexsdad06). Pours a clear dark reddish brown with a small beige head. Nose is citrus hops on top of some strong grains and alcohol. Smells almost barleywinish. Tastes like i would imagine an Imperial Brown IPA would taste. Strong malt backbone with some chocolate, some well done biscuits, hazlenuts, hickory, orange, and grapefuit. Body is medium/full, carbonation is moderate to high. A bit warm and a little rough around the edges, but over-all a winner. With a little tweaking, i think they would have a world class beer here.

Bottle. Pours muddy, hazy brown with light tan head. Sweet aroma with caramel and pleasant malt blended in. Taste is more of the nose with some very bitter hops and an overall bitter taste, very full and almost a little hard to get down. Something seems a little off here. The malts seem to balance the hops to the point that neither dominates, and with this being labeled a DIPA I expected to see a more dominant hop character. I see it is labeled an American Strong Ale on here, and that sounds a little more spot on with what I’m tasting. A slight hint of alcohol comes through too. This is pretty heavy and full, nothing I would call terrible, but I’d have a hard time getting another bomber down without sharing. Definitely not what you would call a DIPA, if that’s what you’re expecting.

Good india pale ale with okay flavor. Very hoppy with some malts. Easy to drink.

Bottle. Amber off white huge head. Signs of oxidation, soapy hop character harsher pine, moth y malt bill and a grainy dry floral finish. Bitter earthy and full bodied. Eh.

Bottle pours deep copper with thin tan head. Aroma is roasted malt and citrus hops. First taste is sweet toffee roasted malt then the hops bitterness takes over with medium citrus burn. The overwhelming difference in flavors hide the alcohol. Really like this one.

Deep dark copper coloured body with amber highlights and a nice-sized thinnish tan head. Aroma of strong malt, some yeast, a bit of apricots and a decent amount of hops - not overly strong though. Medium-bodied; Strong potent hop flavour with a good malt backbone and tons of alcohol and pit fruits in this one. Aftertaste shows a light roastiness, some mild nuttiness, a bit of metal and a good dose of hops. Overall, a decent beer - showing some good characteristics and a large palate. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Freeman’s Liquor in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on 05-May-2009, sampled on 09-June-2009.

"There’s a new boss in town..." but he’s kinda like Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss. :P Bronzish/Vermillion body, lightly hazed, under a large, foamy tan head which settles slow and rocky. Tart, citric aroma with lemons and orange rind, light acetone, powdered tea. I was mildly surprised and somewhat disappointed that this also really tasted like Lipton lemon-flavored instant tea. Some dark fruit strangely comes out later with raisins and prunes while the finish is sour, chalky and mildly astringent. This cellared for two full years so I attribute the overall bizarreness of this brew to aging, but my rating stands since cellaring is commonplace. Learn from my error and drink this fresh. ~~~~~~~~ Purchased June 2007, Grapes of Mirth, Columbus, OH, consumed June 2009.