Magic Hat Chaotic Chemistry

Brewed by Magic Hat Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
South Burlington, Vermont USA

Had my first experience with Magic Hat Chaotic at Max’s Taphouse on May 30th, 2008 during our trip to see the Red Sox play in Baltimore. After partaking in a few other beers, I had originally wante dto try the JW Lees Barley Wine, but the bartender gave me a smapling of the Magic Hat instead saying it was his favorite and based on my other orders thought I would enjoy this one better. BOY WAS HE RIGHT! this ’beer’ was absolutely amazing, unbelievable aroma, and nice ’kick/bite’ to the after taste. Enjoyed slowly and sipping, do not try to chug this beer or take large gulps, you will ruin the flavor and the experience. My experience was with the Magic Hat Chaotic 2000

Sampled at Max’s Taphouse in Baltimore. Pours a dark, translucent, reddish amber with basically zero head. Malty aroma with vanilla, oak and bourbon. Flavor is similar with more vanilla and oak, plenty of wood pulp and bourbon. Harsh alcohol finish.

Draft at Flatbread, All you can smell and taste is the bourbon. If there is a beer hiding in here you did a good job to mask it. When do we taste the barley wine?

On tap at Magic Hat Night at American Flatbread. Special batch? It tasted youngish barleywine, it masked the alcohol. The baley was in the smell. A noticeable head, and some lace. Dark, pretty.

Tap at Blind Tiger. This one is clearly divisive. One ugly pour... muddy dark brown with no head in sight. Aroma is loaded with oak and bourbon. Sweet and caramelly with a nice toasted/charred oak sweetness and a massive amount of vanilla. Sweetish malts along with some light fruits. Loads of sweet bourbony flavour as well. Vanilla, rye spiciness and a bit of alcohol. I like it.

On tap at Blind Tiger in NYC. If I liked bourbon I probably would’ve like this more, but I don’t like bourbon. Pours murky hazy brown with a small off-white head. The aroma has lots (correction LOTS ) of overly sweet bourbon. There seems to be a hint of caramel-like malt, but I can’t be sure due to all of the bourbon. Full / thick body with very little carbonation. The flavor starts with lots of bourbon, tons of sugary sweetness, some musty caramel malt and some wood from the barrel aging. If you like overly sweet bourbon this may be for you. I don’t care much for bourbon, and at the bottom of my list is excessively sweet bourbons. Glad I didn’t have too much of this trainwreck.

Tap at Blind Tiger. An absolutely phenominally bad brew. I had a feeling going into this, seeing the 3 years in bourbon casks, that this would suck. I was right. Tastes like shitty watered down bourbon. There is no beer left here at all. Magic Hat would’ve been better off just barrel-aging sugary water for 3 years. Would’ve saved them and us money. No complexity whatsoever, and a ton of alcohol burn. Yuck.

Bottle shared by puddintane. Dark brown pour with a thin light tan film. Aroma of vanilla, bready malt, caramel, booze soaked fruits, and oak. Flavors of rasin, vinous fruits, booze and caramel malt. Thick body, boozey/malty/vinous with a sweet/malty finish.