BrewDog Mikkeller Devine Rebel Mortlach Reserve 2008

Formerly brewed at BrewDog
Style: Barley Wine
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Serve in Snifter

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Bottle, tasted immediately after tasting the Mortlach whisky. Pours an unattractive muddy, muddled red-brown, looks fizzy but has no head. Aroma is boozy, raisin, date, dark fruit, and nutmeg. Palate is surprisingly light on the tongue. Seems too sweet, chewy and cloying at first. Then it mellows extraordinarily. Becomes a nice brown bread. The aftertaste is lingering vanilla plus wood. After tasting the Mortlach whisky, I can see how the sweet custard flavors of the whisky are imparting themselves here. I took notes on the whisky too and described it as having a "sweet, dessert-like aroma with lots of vanilla and vanilla extract" with flavors of "custard, vanilla cake, smooth with a woody finish." Lots of this carried over into the beer, which is quite pleasant overall. In some ways this is just another barleywine, but in other ways it’s got very nice flavors, especially lots of nice prune and raisins stewed in wood.

Bottle number 863 at Mikkeller Bar. It pours deep red, with a thick off-white head. The nose is cinnamon, nutmeg, varnish, wood, whisky, vanilla and jam. The taste is jammy fruit, whisky, alcohol warmth, hay, brown sugar, wood, leather, spice, dryness, cake and syrup, with a long, warming finish. Full body, fine carbonation and slightly sticky mouth-feel. Complex and interesting - a good night cap!

pours copper with medium yellow to brown frizzy head distinct sweet aromas of honey, brown sugar, alcohol, some oak taste is sweet and oaky. quite mild palate. quite lame aftertaste but the oakyness remains.

Brewdog event at the Rake, 7th Sept 2010. By Christ this has a lovely aroma. Cherry and sea weed and plastic. It does, though, start to edge too close to fusel alcohol after a while. Fuzzy, fizzy carbonation - frothing - a barrier to the flavour - a softening - lots of toffee. Not as aggressive as plastic aroma suggests.

Bottle number 420/1000 pours semi murky amber with tan head. Looks very barleywine-y. The aroma is bold with brown sugar coated prunes, dates and figs followed by near dusty oak notes, apples, brown sugar coated simmering prunes and earthiness. Yummy. The taste has pleasing sweet rich dark fruity esters mixing with caramel candy, honey and then rolling into some spicy oak and smooth bourbon. Smooth stuff.

Bottle 330ml.

[ Trade by cgarvieuk ]. Light unclear medium orange amber colour with a small, frothy - fizzy, fair lacing, fully diminishing, off-white head. Aroma is moderate to heavy malty, toasted, caramel, apple, cask wood, oak, raisin - dried berry - fruit, wood, alcohol. Flavour is heavy sweet and bitter with a long duration, oak, sticky. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. [20111123]

33cl, Vintage 2008, bottle 864/1000, exclusive Scottish brew, thx to Jeppe!, very complex brew, sweet and slightly spicy, heavy, yet balanced, cloudy, nearly no head, very good brew, yet very expensive!

UPDATED: MAR 17, 2012 Taster from bottle at Brewdog event at the Rake, 7th Sept 2010. Hazy mid brown. The nose has lots of tar, alcohol, sherry and wood. Tastes great with lots of sherry, spiced plum and apple. Palate has a woody smoothness and a decent amount of alcoholic heat. Also Bottle 366, drunk at home with tashi, 17th March 2012. Similar - very pronounced brambly character to nose and very clear woody note in taste. Still delightful.

Unique. Bottle 238. Spicy, peaty nose with some berries. In the mouth it doesn’t really gel. Peat, whisky, dark fruits but it doesn’t come together perfectly. Good, but not great.

UPDATED: APR 29, 2011 #800-ish. Got one left to store. Hard to define. Nice, but not brilliant aroma and palate. Almost like you’d expect a richer beer. But lacking the balance of eg Närke or Sigtuna AOS. It’s all right, but personally I expected something a bit more radical and exciting.

Bottle. #654/1000. Pours a brownish amber color with a small off-white head. Has a fruity malty dark fruity apple aroma with some woody hints. Sweetish malty woody caramel and apple flavor with hints of dark fruit. Has a sweetish fruity malty woody caramel finish.