Metropolitan Barrel Aged Heavy Iron Works Sticke Alt

Brewed by Metropolitan Brewing
Style: Altbier
Chicago, Illinois USA

Serve in Kölsch/Altbier

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Sampled at FOBAB, 2011. This may have been the only barrel-aged lager style I tried of the day, but this one was really not bad at all. There’s almost a funky quality to the nose. Rye bread mixes with hazy caramel and some dry, nutty grains. Also, apricot and other minor indistinct fruits in the aroma. Appearance-wise, it poured a light wood color with a creamy, white, bubbling head. Sour, sweet, and almost-funk notes also appear in the flavor. Caramel, whiskey barrels, sweet fruit wine, some cereal grains, light earth, and herb round out the notes. Overall, this was not perfect, but definitely a good experience with a barrel-aged lager. Interested to see more of this kind of experimentation in the future.

FOBAB 2011. Pours a cloudy, copper-orange colored body with a finger-width, dense, creamy and frothy, tan head that dissipates slow and leaves a nice lacing throughout. Aroma is caramel with some grainy bread and clean lager yeast with a nice whiskey wood. Some lager fruits, toast, and alcohol. Flavor is similar. Bready caramels with a light grainy toast and a good amount of whiskey and wood that still lets the malts maintain their presence, albeit a bit thinned. Some lager yeast and fruits with a light spice from the wood as well. Finishes clean and has a light hop bitterness accompanying the wood that dries with a nice whiskey heat that doesn’t feel like too much to me. Lengthy aftertaste following a light-medium body and a soft, moderate carbonation. Overall, a pretty nice beer. There is still enough of that pleasant maltiness, although the barrel did thin it a bit. The whiskey and wood is somewhat dominant, but I did get a bit of the lager yeast and fruit to go with the malts. I liked this one.

Draft at FoBAB 9. I thought this would be more impressive than it wound up being. Pours a deep brownish bronze with a fluffy white head. Nose is grainy and toasty, light coconut notes as well. On tasting, lots of booze and a big bitterness. The wood is lending oak tannins and astringency which, when coupled with the bitterness, becomes overbearing. It’s a shame, I liked the base a lot but this just kind of goes over the top and the whiskey is a bit much for the beer. Okay, but just not quite there.

Sampled on tap at FoBAB 2011 (Chicago, IL). Pours a murky amber pour, no real glow with loose bubbly offwhite head. Aromas are sticky sweet caramel, toffee, oaky spirit. Vanilla, sticky breads and cereal grains, touches of heat. Initial is thinned out, a bit hot overall with touches of spice, sweet toffee, caramel, and spice. Touches of fruit, gentle brown sugar as more heat from the barrel comes into play. finish is hot and bland. Not a beer I loved, a strange beer for barrel aging that gets thinned out a bit much and overriden by the heat I felt.. Carburetor won this year for me.

draft... one of the lighter beers of the evening but too much whiskey comes through for my liking, on to something but more work needed