Kuhnhenn Extraneous Ale

Date: 03/17/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting

opaque brown, headless, intense rich sweet chocolate aroma with dark fruits including prune and rum soaked raisons, only a hint of alcohol, thick body, sweet chocolate flavor, lots of dark fruit character, gritty brown sugar and raw molasses sweetness, instantly warming, light bitterness,

Aroma: 10/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 9/10; Overall: 18/20
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ****/4

Tap @ GTMW 2006. Murky, with a golden chestnut hued body and no head from the get-go, but that’s bygones. This is the kind of beer you clear your calendar for a week and sniff for seven days straight. It’s an aromatic elixir, surging forth with plums, prunes and caramel glazed golden apples. Bourbon aromatically wedges within sandalwood and is appropriately seeded by apricots and invigoratingly hot pear juice. First sip yields heavenly interventions. It’s like sipping fine cognac. Hot persistence slides into jojoba and bourbon saturated caramel cursory. Sip it and revel in it. Smooth and seductive cherry amaretto and liquefied honey graham crust. Subliminal substance. Golden delicious apples fornicate with a delicatessen caramel glaze. Brandy, cognac and butter don’t hold a candle to this ale. Sweet and bitter oranges are extrapolated and served out of a liquor laden crème brûlée base. Lingering, fruity, cherry substance and drying tongue sides define the essence of flavor in the finish.

GTM ’06 Draught. This was billed as a hybrid Barleywine-Pale Lager. Smells like a cookie cutter bourbon barrel aged beer. Dark reddish brown. No head. No lace. Very strong (17.5%) and sweet. Awakens the senses. Warming on a hot day.

Bottle... This beer rocks!... Murky caramel-colored ale with no head. Woodsy, vinous nose with notes of port, caramel, soy sauce, dried plum, oak and plenty of bourbon. The flavor is sweet and bourbony, but not cloyingly so. Plenty of toffee, almonds, dates and dried plums thrown in the mix. Full-bodied with soft carbonation. Lengthy, bourbony, toffee finish. Dries out. Another world class brew from Kuhnhenn... served up by a world class bartender/waitress, Holly!

Tulip glass, sampled directly from the barrel on 4/7/06, room temperature.
Some fizzy, tan bubbles collect at the surface for a hair of a second before disappearing in to the deep, viscous-looking, violet-tinged copper-mahogany body. Good clarity, from resting in the barrel, but with so thick a beer as to produce a light glucose-like haze even though it is uncarbonated. Bright hickory and black cherry skin tints as well when held to the light. Not surprisingly, the beer produces massive legs on the glass that do not disappear quickly.
Sticking my nose in to the glass, I come away with a lovely, rich sherry-meets-toffee, with thick raisins, rich milk chocolate and light vinous notes. Stubborn plum notes are about the extent of the fruitiness, more along the lines of a bock, with, at this point, light coconut and touches of bourbon dryness balancing. Alcohol is immensely well-concealed in aroma, it’s just completely consumed by the rich toffee and caramel. Not to make it sound too mundane and cloying, it certainly provides lively dates and raisins, with a full complement of tart vinous notes, as previously mentioned. Strength of aroma is, of course, very strong and immensely sniffable. Lightly dry, bready notes and graham cracker notes provide additional dryness.
Almost on cue from the aroma, the flavor picks up where the aroma left off. Light soy sauce, cocoa notes, semi-sweet chocolate and plump, lightly tart raisins enter the mix. Fruity plums and raisins dance about on the edges, providing balance, but there is a perceived vinousness that seems to do most of the work in balancing, and does so seemlessly. Butter toffee hangs on to the palate, while chocolate covered peanuts (nuttiness coming from the wood) deepen the complexity. Bourbon is elegantly done, as I have come to expect and appreciate from these brewers. This sample came at 3 months on the barrel, with 3 more to go. At this point there is notable coconut, light burnt wood and bland tannin, but very light, overall. I think 3 more months will continue to provide more complexity without overdoing anything.
Because it is not carbonated, the texture is not much of a factor. Slippery from the lack of carbonation, but incredibly rich and sticky as well. Reminds me of Thomas Hardys in a way. The kind of beer I would love to have bottled and try 20 years down the road (though it will be draught only).