4.6 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 18/20UPDATED: FEB 28, 2009 Draft at Brouwer’s on release day. For a lot of us, Wednesday today revolved around balancing work, hitting the sale early, maybe trying to make the tasting with Alan, then getting down to the tapping at Brouwer’s in the evening.
At the tapping tonight, a table of us all ordered a Matt and a New Belgium Wild. We all started in on the Matt, and eight guys who’d like nothing more than to sit and talk about beer all shut up pretty quickly. Everybody there was a homebrewer, everybody there had tons of questions about and insights into the beer, but after a couple sips we were all sitting silent, smiling at our glasses like smitten little schoolboys. That’s worth noting before we get started actually talking about the beer.
It pours nearly black, pretty much ebony with rubied highlights with very light head and virtually no lace. The time in the barrels is certainly evident just from the appearance that way.
The nose shows apples with some roast and even campfire poking in around the edges, there’s that traditional ale cola note, and maybe some chocolate showing.
The draft version evidently has more body, more cream, to it than the bottled version. So there may be a slight advantage there. It’s hard to say where the flavors start; it’s hard to pick out which one hits you first. There are roasted apples, dipped in chocolate, smoke still showing on them, a bit of a cherry vanilla note from the bourbon, and then a depth of roast and cola under all that, lending some contrast but mostly stabilizing it.
Absolutely fantastic beer, certainly one of the best I’ve had in my young life.
Looks like I need to add a correction here; Alan posted in the forums to point out that he used some different grains and added candi sugar to the Adam recipe. So, while there are very definite similarities, they’re not the same beer.
3.8 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20
Bottle shared by an RBer after DLD 2013, 2010 vintage. Really dark brown color. Pretty much no head, no lace. Good hazy color, though. Baked apple, good spice aroma. Nice wood. Some brown sugar. Big body. Dry texture. Light, smooth carbonation. Spicy taste, light sweet. Mild alcohol. Nice vanilla, pretty rich, but not too big or sticky. Awesome, big stuff.
4 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
Bottle at Craft Heads, Tokyo. Black colour with a small off-white head. Aroma of coffee, chocolate, raisin. Flavour of dark fruit, raisin. Thick bodied.
5 AROMA 10/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 10/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 20/20
12oz bottle at Hair Of The Dog. 2010 Vintage. This is my second tasting of this amazing brew. It's in my top 3. Amazing flavor of raisins and pepper. Omg, there's just nothing else that tastes anything like this.
3.9 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20
Bottle. Poured into a DFH tulip style glass.Served at about 55 degrees. Unsure of vintage but probably from the latest one. Pours a dark coffee like brown color with a slight light tan head. Very little carbonation. Dark fruit notes like cherry, woody, slight smoke, and chocolate. Medium mouthfeel. Very smooth. Dark chocolate, bourbon, dark fruit flavors followed by a slight alcohol warming effect. Overall, pretty tasty.
4.2 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 18/20
split at a blind tasting with 77 ships. ( blind to him since this was my bottle)
looks very dark, no foam. smell is a hint of bourbon. dry, sweet ( bourbon) yet no overkill at the BA -taste. very low carbo, wich is good. alcohol is very high in the taste . also get chocolat. aftertaste is boozy
4.7 AROMA 10/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 10/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 19/20
THX! for sharing this one Kraddel. 355 ml. bottle. 2010 Vintage. Pours blackish / very, very dark mahogany brown with light Bordeaux hues &… no head. Yep, its as expected flat. Nose carries sweet bourbon, sticky molasses, syrupy dark fruits, clean good quality spirit riding on top of the bourbon barrel, I still find Eau de Vie barrels – even apple ones apparently – weird barrels to use since they basically just add spirit to the whole (albeit good quality), lots of sweetness in the nose of this one, sweet scared barrels & wood vanilla, dark sugar, clean spirit as mentioned riding on top of the bourbon. Taste is sweet dark apples, thick caramel, very thick syrup, thick molasses, creamy barrel & bourbon notes, white wood, lots of sweetness, syrup dark fruits, clean spirit riding at the end, this feels quite boozy & strongly alcoholic, +20 % ABV not 12.5 % ABV, wood vanilla, black chocolate, charred barrels, very warming, the alcohol warms you up in the back. Basically no carb, interesting how this would be with some light carb & slick, full which makes the carb. not all too missed. Fine stuff from Alan.
4 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
2010. Bourbon, leather, burnt malts, slightly smoked, a kiss of sweetness on the back end. Slightly sweeter than the Bottleworks X version. Complexity in spades; damn this is good.
4.2 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 16/20
Bottle at home, gifted with many thanks to Frank, 18/01/13.
Extremely dark mahogony brown almost black out of the light with no head.
Nose carries a big bourbon hit, plummy, raisens, wood tones, dark candied sugars, booze, fruit cake, toffee apple, lots going on and coming together well.
Taste comprises dark malt, toffee apple, booze, bourbon, wood, candied sugars, shades of Calvados.
Full bodied, smooth - great on the palate, fine carbonation, boozey finish.
Complex stuff, well balance, ticks all of the boxes for me !
4.4 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 18/20
12oz bottle purchased long ago in 2010. Reviewed from notes, consumed 12-17. 2010 vintage.
A: Black like charred ash. A thin creme lacing and sticky, sticky legs.
N: Deep inhalations of smoke and apple brandy. Chocolate and leather drift in and out between the charred oak. There’s deep vanilla here and caramel. Rich and inviting.
T: Smoke, candi sugar, and malt. Bourbon and oak notes overlap with the apple brandy depth. A second layer of chocolate and leather. This is absolutely superb.
M: A hefty body with a completely shocking lack of alcohol. This is carbonated, if barely. Lingers.
O: A complete tour de force. The 2010 is the superior vintage, by far, in my estimation, and this is drinking quite well at 2 years old. Glad I have more.
4.4 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 19/20
Pours brownish black with no head. Aroma of chocolate, toffee and alcohol. Taste is chocolate, caramel, coffee and tobacco. So chewy and dessert like. So complex
---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone
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