 Rastacouere (5270), Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Nov 12, 2007
A deep copper tint with slight garnet reflects. Bold and impressive nose with strong American identity, minus the cleanliness. Pretty yeasty and estery, but obviously even more so malty. Barrel influence remains restrained, though clearly responsible for the smoky notes. Full on the slick grape, plum, toasted bread, maple-like, chocolatey, vanilla laden malts, supported by a mellow wooden base. Sweet and potent all along, yet not so heady as I would have expected. Despite its active and dynamic fruitiness, I can’t call it vinous, it is too cerealic for that. Well integrated, rather velvety body never gets cloying and for an exception, its sojourn in the barrel may be partly responsible for the graceful thinning of the final product. Very solid and not so pretentious as many, not pushing an element forward, but striving for heavy balance.
General_Gao (2509), Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Sep 1, 2008 Thanks to iowaherkeye for bringing this bottle to his ’farewell to Iowa’ tasting. 2007 vintage. Poured a clear garnet color with a khaki head. Smelled of booze, brown sugar, toffee, and a hint of anise. Full bodied, sweet, and boozy. Tasted predominantly of brown sugar, vanilla, and booze with dashes of cinnamon and distinct salt. I also got a bit of sassafras. Good beer, but somewhat overrated, IMO.
marchcow (492), Coralville, Iowa, USA
Aug 31, 2008 Bottle from Iowaherkeye - thanks Joey. Light oaken aroma and some dried fruit. Rich malty and hops flavors with a touch of alcohol, cream cheese, caramel and dried fruit. Good strong flavors. Creamy and rich palate with a bourbonesque duration. Very good.
ChristianScheffel (2104), Odense, Denmark
Aug 29, 2008 Bottled at RBESG. Brown with a small light brown head. Aroma has oak, toffee, malt and a slight note of hops. Rich malty flavour with vanilla and oak, some hops and warming alcohol.
CapFlu (3292), Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Aug 23, 2008 (750ml) Many thanks to MartinT for sharing. Pours a thing, frothy brown head atop a deep-brown opaque body. Nose of green figs, alcohol, bourbon and dirt. Flavour is sweet. Molasses, caramel malt, hops, oaks. Wondeful, wonderful beer.
pivnizub (3822), Porúří, Germany
Aug 13, 2008 Bottle (RBESG 08); Dark amber with a tanned head; vanilla, wood and leather, also traces of port-wine; full bodied, full bitter flavour; dry, warming finish with chocolate and alcohol. Fine night-cap...........
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