Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak (Wine Barrel)

Batch 2; Sampled May 2008
I knew this might be a gusher and I still lost a couple ounces to my counter and sing. A soft pour still produces four-fingers of head in my glass plus another two fingers above the rim. The head is a tight, creamed-chocolate, tan color and the beer is a dark-chocolate brown / black color that is quite opaque even when held up to the light. As I pour this brew a nice wine-influenced aroma wafts to my nose. A deeper inspection yields ample Brettanomyces influence with notes of sweat, musty horse-blanket notes, butyric acid and a sharp-yet-light tartness. Underneath the more dominant funkiness is are some porter notes of toasted grain, lightly roasted coffee beans and if you smell the beer in a sideways sort of fashion (figuratively of course) there is a substantial, bright berry like wine character, a touch of jam and some leather and tobacco notes to this beer. The smoked malt aromatics have almost completely been subsumed by the other aromas, but there is perhaps a touch of saltiness here that could be attributed to it.

Lightly sweet tasting up front with a middle that has a nice berry-like wine character to it that just barely makes its presence known. A lot of the carbonation was lost during the initial gushing and in the 5+ minutes it has sat in my glass, it is still well carbonated though and this combines with a fairly light body to make this pretty easy drinking. The funk is a bit more muted in the flavor than in the aroma, but the Brett influence definitely comes out in the finish; musty, light notes of phenolic soaked cotton balls, butyric acid notes, some acidity that accentuates the wine character and a woody mushroom note. This finishes with a mix of fruit-driven wine flavors, and some porter flavors of toasted grain, roasted malts, toasted bread-like flavors and a touch of burnt grain bitterness. The actual oak contribution here is soft; there is some spicy oak character towards the finish, and a touch of tannic character seems to influence the texture, but it remains a supporting cast member here, which I quite like.

My second pour still has an incredible level of carbonation, this makes me realize how velvety the texture of this beer really is. Despite being very well carbonated the beer feels quite smooth and velvet-like all while foaming up as it crosses the tongue; quite an interesting textural experience that I don’t believe I have ever experienced in a beer before. I can’t taste any smokiness in this brew at all & I wonder if he left the smoke malt out of this brew completely.

This is by far my favorite of the from the oak beers so far. This doesn’t have any heavy-handed hard liquor competing with the funkiness that I really found jarring in the other two versions of this I have had. Instead the wine barrel influence works quite well with both the Brettanomyces and the base porter. I really like the fruit notes that the wine barrel aging have added to this beer, it is nothing heavy, but most certainly a welcome addition to up the complexity of this brew. Sans the slight wine influence, this is exactly as I would imagine an old, pre 1900s, unblended, stale porter would have been like (sans the modern malt formulation of course). This is just a great marriage of funkiness & barrel influence with porter. If it wasn’t so explosive already I would love to age some more of this. I definitely came into this with a bit of skepticism, but this has delivered and I am quite happy with this brew; this makes me really want to try the Port-Barrel version.

750 bottle Colin brought back from his trip to NYC. Batch 2. Shared with us at Uber Tavern in Seattle. Pour is deep dark brown ruby, smallish tan head. Aroma is mostly about the red wine, it is remarkable how much this smells like a Pinot Noir. Behind the wine is some roasted maltiness. Taste of sour sharp winey maltiness. Smoked roastiness. Interesting taste, but pretty divergent from a beer. Finish has sourness. An interesting experiment to be sure, but the end result was in a sort of no man’s land for me.

750, capped. Batch 2. Thanks, Colin! Black. Dense but thin creamy tan head. Big red wine nose--smells simultaneously acetic and drying and also fruit-bomby. Perplexing. Maybe the fruits are from the malt? Nah. Medium body, sharp carb. Bit of a sour bite from all the acidity in the wine. Tastes almost bugged for a minute. Roasty malt base underneath, but kind of a mediocre porter. Fruity and sour on top of that. Like none other, to be sure, but doesn’t really seem to know what it wants to be, other than that it was in those wine barrels for a really long time.

750 ml bottle, batch 2 - thanks so much to goldtwins for the trade; pours a fuzzy dark brown with big dark tan head; aromas are sort of a strange mix of a stale tartness and red wine; flavors are fruity, sweet and a little chewy; soft, fluffy texture; finish is dry and tart; a very odd beer overall and pretty much all characteristics of the porter are gone, especially the flavors; i haven’t had the regular porter to compare though; drank alongside the rum and bourbon editions and all three were rather disappointing; hope to try again when i stop by captain lawrence in late june

Batch 2. Gushing. Oak brown pour. Thick film of ashy grey. Cherry and cassis notes in an aroma that gives a reserved but definite barrel suggestion. Caramel malts and some burly barbecue smokiness; the smoked quality seems more visceral given this softer touch of barrel presence. Malt presents more substantially as well; cinnamon and sugar, dark honey, bran cereal, fresh vanilla. Loveable subtlety and deep character there; where the bourbon barrel and brett of the last installment seemed, while intriguing and satisfying, too stark, the wine barrel seems the perfect compliment to the nuances of this already subtle arrangement. Oak tartness is the dominant flavor, which, again, imbued with the characters of wine seems unusually deep. Dark chocolate, mexican chocolate, tannins, lively currants and berries, and earthy, woodsy minerals. Maybe some citrus oils running through these thick cookie malts. So much full tartness and distinctive, polished malt character; flavors seem fully bonded to each other and so very velvety and understated. Palate is silken; medium to full in body and wholly round with this taut, caressing, cottony yeast texture. Sours up a bit quite nicely toward the end, lending a long, acidic cherry and sweet tobacco leaf flavor in a brisk, lightly dried finish. It would seem to be adventurous, but rather, it comes across more as a finely tuned example of a concept that’s been done with too little imagination too many times. Gorgeous. Thanks Andrew!