Magic Hat Chaotic Chemistry

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

Dark honey, spicy. Dark orangey color with a medium creamy tan head. Sweet and cidery - apple like. Mellow, especially appley in the aftertaste. Brandylike in the aftertaste.

3rd Annual Woodshop Tasting, 3/1/08. Thanks Chris! This was hidden in his "non-rare" room. I was stoked on it...and sure enough, it delievered hard! Intensely sweet, sticky bourbon,lolli-pop, rich oak and vanilla, caramelly wood. Reminiscent of BA Numbskull. Awesome!!!

Tasted at 2008 Woodshop hosted by cquiroga. Wow. Sweet delicious malty goodness. No carbonation. Kind of like thick brandy elixer. Yum. I wonder why it is not rated highly? Maybe people don’t like sweet as much as meet. Maybe they needed to age it a little. Hmm. Anyway, cool bottle.

2004 vintage sampled at cquiroga’s 3rd Annual Woodshop Tasting. This is some dank sh*t right here. Hell yeah. The beer exhibited one of the most intense barrel characters I’ve had in a while. Pours very still like brandy, no head or any carbonation for that matter. Insane bourbon barrel aroma, displaying notes of charred wood, coconut and vanilla. More wood and bourbon in the flavor, with caramel malts, brandy and cocoa powder. Elegant palate that finishes mellow with sustained warming bourbon, this would serve as a great aperitif. Wow.

30th Rating from 3rd Annual Woodshop tasting in Temple City, CA. 3/1/08. One hell of a day put on by Cquiroga, thanks for a killer day Chris. Also spent the day there with bikesanbeer, my girlfriend Cyn, wetherel, JohnC, DenverLogan, dirty_martini, jasparg, DrBil, IPAFiend, awaisanen and many others, this was one crazy day. 2004 Vintage 750. Best Beer I’ve had form Magic Hat, Period. Pours amber with no head. Big sweet nose, Taste is sweet adn big and nice and crazy. very very good.

Amber Colour. Not much head. Citrus & Hops combine nicely and give a nice warm glow. Surprising, really since the bottle is 4 years old.

Draft sampling at State Line. Pour was murky brown with reddish hues, fairly generous tannish colored head, recarbonated after aging? The aroma was an overpowering strong bourbon/brandy, smelled many feet away from the glass. Drawing the glass close to the nose, really it was hard to detect much else going on underneath, some fruitiness, but that could have just been elements from what I’m calling the brandy/bourbon itself. The flavor was unexciting, unless you wanted a shot of Brandy/Bourbon. I couldn’t even tell what the base beer style was (light oak, vanilla, and honey also present), the liquor was so overwhelming. This is one of the finest examples of the overdone aging in liquor/wine barrels. Robert, thanks a bunch for the experience, still a fun tasting and it certainly wasn’t a drain pour - just not a beer?

NOTB; as golubj mentioned this was almost too much. Seems like it was bourbon with some barley wine influence. Not bad tasting, but just a little too aggressive.