Central Waters Brewers Reserve Bourbon Barrel Scotch Ale

Formerly brewed at Central Waters Brewing Co.
Style: Scotch Ale
Amherst, Wisconsin USA

Serve in Thistle

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UPDATED: SEP 16, 2008 Central Waters has an impressive lineup of different beers and this one is my favorite. Very smooth and slightly sweet taste. Not really like any other scotch ales but it’s probably the best I’ve had. Smooth, Dark and potent. I also recommend the CW Loch Ness Scotch Ale.

Pours dark brown with off-white head that lasts. Aroma of malt, toffee, caramel, brown sugar and coconut. Taste to follow with a strong caramel malt and bourbon presence. Mmm Mmm good.

On draught at the brewpub in Marshfield, Wisconsin. Pours a clear cola brown brew with a creamy off-white head that slowly dissolves to a white ring with excellent lacing. Aroma of sweet caramel malt, toffee, distinct brown sugar, licorice and coconut. Taste is medium to full bodied, hardly any carbonation with flavors of caramel malt with bourbon and coconut. Finish is sweet, sugary with caramel and bourbon flavors. Pretty nice barrel aged scotch ale but no outside growler sales.

Central Waters does a bourbon barrel version of half their line-up (and usually intensely bourbony), which is great, because I love anything barrel-aged, but not so great in that many of them start to taste similar. Still, this was very good, and different enough. Big bourbon aroma and taste, with some backtaste of almost buttery caramel and a sweet nuttiness. Hard to identify this as a Scotch ale – but we’ll call that an example of creativity. Recommended.

GABF 2006. Ruby tinged copper. Nose is big bourbon. There’s some sweetness to this as well. More bourbon in the taste, caramel, sweet , creamy malts, and syrupy notes. Faint peaty notes here but it’s still mainly bourbon. Body is medium with mild carbonation. Ends with more bourbon, sugary sweetness and caramel.

Draft... GABF ’06... Dark, clear, copper ale with a small, creamy, khaki head. All I smell is bourbon. With lots of bourbon and caramel, the flavor leans toward the sweet side of balance as the style dictates. Medium to full-bodied with an oily mouthfeel and moderate carbonation. Tangy then dry finish.

GABF 2006. The beer pours to a dark mahogany/chestnut body with a thin white head. The aroma is barrel, sweet light powdered sugar and dark malts. The flavor is smooth. Sweet powdered sugar, nice light peatiness. Good balanced barrel aging. Nice!

On tap at the Great Taste of the Midwest. Poured an ugly, murky brown with loose bubbles for head. Nose was heavy on the sweet bourbon with lesser notes of smoked peat, fresh caramel, and mild spices. Flavor also carried through a large amount of bourbon, but the other components provided sufficient goodness to keep it interesting (caramel, toffee, smoked peat, chocolate)... Just felt OK on the palate... a tad on the flat side and nothing memorable. I would love to see this bottled.

Tap @ GTMW 2006. Ruddy and muddy chestnut in color with a few bubbles to form a rung around the edges. There’s no mistaking the bourbon prevalence in the nose, as it’s met with single malt scotch and a background peat presence. Tollhouse caramel & chocolate chip cookies are aromatically hinted at, and then they get the shit smashed out of them with bourbon. Flavor moves the bourbon aspects into a whisky & rye spin and portrays buttery butterscotch to-a-tee. Toffee bark imparts an omnipresent characteristic to the whisky current. Medium-bodied with a touch of tannic and acidic activity. Chocolate toffee cubes get chased with hazelnut flavored whisky. Turned down carbonation lets the flavors play out, but it also publicizes a touch of searing acidity. Peat and scorched caramelized sugars meet up with buttery, bourbon laden butterscotches in the end.

Murky brown pour thin tan head. Heavy bourbon aroma full sweet malts. Palate is full well coated and lightly creamy. Flavor is surprisingly light dominated by bourbon hitns of wheat. Not great.. but not bad.