Five of Diamonds Pilsner

 

          Located in Lacombe Alberta, Len Thompson Fishing Lures celebrated its 90^th anniversary in 2019. In 1951 Len developed the Five of Diamonds lure, painting it in yellow and black because Len himself was colorblind and could more easily see yellow. Also located in Lacombe, Blindman Brewing approached the Len Thompson factory for permission to use the Five of Diamonds trademark. Blindman Brewing got permission with the trademark royalties going to local recreational fishing and conservation programs.

Five of Diamonds Pilsner is a German pilsner, which is related to the Bohemian pilsner but does have its differences. The German pilsner has a lighter body and paler color than the Bohemian version, for instance. German pilsner is also drier and crisper, with a more lingering bitterness. Five of Diamonds Pilsner is crystal clear and a very pale amber. It’s almost paler than the color of ripe hay. Streams of pinpoint CO2 support a cloudy, bone white head with good retention.

          As I take my first sniff, Five of Diamonds hits me with aromas of grain and fresh cut grass. From here, aromas of grain continue to make their presence known. Those grains have a little depth, having a vague maltiness to them. It reminds me somewhat of graham crackers. All of this is reinforced by what I can only describe as a “brightness” in the center that somehow holds the aromas together in a more or less enticing fashion.

          Five of Diamonds is smooth and crisp, as a German pilsner should be. Up front smoothness leads directly into flavors of grain and fresh cut grass. Unlike the aroma, Five of Diamond’s flavor reminds me more of soda crackers than graham crackers. The center has a minor roundness to it, before leading into a crisp, dry finish.

          I think Five of Diamonds deserves a 7.75 out of 10. It’s a very good representation of a German pilsner. It’s crisp, dry, refreshing and boasts traditional flavors of grain, pale malts, and mild bitterness in the finish. What’s more the flavors are balanced and refreshing, making this more than just another mainstream lawnmower beer. Five of Diamonds is well worth a visit if you’re a fan of traditional German pilsners.

Echigo Stout

 

          As I ready this review for publication, I can’t decide if I’m going blind in my old age or if I just can’t navigate the information superhighway. Either way, it took me forever to find anything approaching a website for the company making the beer I’m reviewing today. After asking Google to translate the website for me, I found nothing helpful. Poor me, suffering the burdens of having to do research before posting a review. So, let’s tackle this from another angle: exactly what kind of stout is this?

As I refer to the BJCP style guidelines, I take a process of elimination approach to figuring out what kind of stout Echigo is offering me. At 7% abv, it’s too strong to be a traditional Irish stout, and not strong enough to be a Russian imperial stout. It lacks the complex, rich mouthfeel of an oatmeal stout but does have the sweetness of a milk stout. The alcohol content and hints of roasted grains make me think this might be a Japanese version of a foreign extra stout. Until I hear otherwise, that’s what I’m going with. Echigo Stout pours into my glass jet black with a dense, cream colored head.

          Taking a sniff, Echigo’s aroma is sweeter than I expected. Echigo’s aroma is also more subdued than I expected, given that it’s a stronger than average stout. It starts off with the sweetness I’ve seen in milk stouts. From there, I find hints of deep malt and the obligatory roasted grains. The aromas are very pleasant, just not as assertive as you would expect from a strong stout.

          Echigo Stout is full bodied, lush, and smooth. Malt flavors come forward in a way similar to dried fruits somewhere between raisins and dates. Up front smoothness gives a brief illusion of sweetness before moving into darker, maltier flavors. Towards the finish there’s a hint of roasted grains, giving a finish similar to what you’d find in a dark roast coffee. Roasted coffee moves into a brief, dry finish.

          I think Echigo stout deserves a 6.25 out of 10. It’s fine, but nothing in this stout really stands out in any way. The aroma isn’t as robust as I would expect in a stout, let alone a stout over 6% abv. The mouthfeel is smooth, the finish is roasted but there isn’t an overall balance to the beer’s flavor. Interesting example of the style, but there is some room for improvement in my opinion.

Eagle Bombardier

 

          I sometimes talk to people about the importance of who owns the breweries making craft beer. I tend not to care if some big, multinational corporation owns a craft brewery. The only thing I really care about is if the brewery in question makes good beer. As far as I’m concerned, the big guys can own all the craft breweries they want, as long as they don’t meddle with the quality of the product. To that end, I was intrigued to learn England’s Marston Brewing had recently acquired Wells Brewing.

Wells & Young was responsible for many familiar beers like Wells IPA and Wells Bombardier, now labelled as Eagle Bombardier Amber Ale. If I’m being honest, I’m a little concerned with the rebranding. Wells Bombardier branded itself as an English beer, including a St. George’s flag on the label. Wells Bombardier looked British, practically screamed its English identity to all who saw its labelling. Seeing the change in branding, I’m curious to try the beer with its new identity. Bombardier pours into my glass medium brown in color, leaning somewhat more towards amber than nut brown. The head is dense and the color of cream.

          Taking a sniff, I smell aromas of malt that are subdued, bordering on timid. What maltiness I smell is very much what you would expect of an English ale. Toasted caramel and nuttiness combine with hints of toasted bread to give a very English profile. In the center, nuttiness combines with hints of granny smith apples. Those esters move quickly and quietly into a finish of peppercorn hops.

          On the tongue, Bombardier feels like it has a little more presence than what I found in the beer’s aroma. Smooth mouthfeel allows sweet flavors of caramel to shine before the beer’s carbonation moves us into the center where I taste nuttiness and hints of leather. As with the nose, I find that hint of granny smith apple. All of these flavors combine smoothly and seamlessly before leading into a crisp, assertive bitter finish.

          Bombardier earns a solid 7.25 out of 10. It’s a very solid English bitter. Its mouthfeel is smooth, carrying the beer’s flavors easily across the tongue. The flavors remind me very much of a decent brown ale before leading into a decent bitter finish. That finish is assertive in its bitterness without being too overpowering. My only real complaint with this ale is that its aromas aren’t as present as they could be. Apart from that, this is a perfectly enjoyable English bitter.

Barrel Project 19.10

 

          Once upon a time, your choices were fairly predictable if you wanted to buy a barrel aged beer. Back in the day, you could only find porter, stout, and barleywine with the words “barrel aged” on the label, and they were routinely aged in bourbon or some other kind of whiskey barrel. Today though, the innovative nature of craft brewing has thrown the doors of barrel aging wide open. For one thing, a wider variety of beer is being aged in barrels these days.

You can find saisons, IPAs, sour ales, and so many other styles of beer being aged in barrels before being bottled. What’s more, you can find more than just whiskey barrels being used to age those beers. Barrels that once held wine, port, tequila, and other spirits are pulling double duty in breweries across the industry. As it happens, I decided to pick a barrel aged barleywine recently, having tried and liked another beer from Brouwerij Kees. Barrel Project 19.10 is the darkest barleywine I think I’ve ever seen. It’s basically jet black with a coffee and cream colored head.

          The aroma really has a lot going on. The first thing I smell is the bourbon barrel the beer was aged in. Here, I’m getting huge notes of vanilla, the depth of wood, and hints of the bourbon itself. Vanilla and brown sugar give the aroma a hint of sweetness coupled with a gentle aroma or ripe fruit. Malt comes through in the finish with aromas reminding me of dark fruits like dates before fading into the background.

          Taking a sip reveals me a barleywine with a very, very full body. Flavors are very malty up front, coupled with a subtle and not unpleasant alcoholic flavor. After all, the beer does clock in just north of 11% abv. Flavors of malt and alcohol lead into a notable flavor of rum and raisins. Rum and raisin lead into flavors of wood and subtle spiciness on the back of the tongue. The whole thing is very full in flavor and mouthfeel making a beer that enjoys being sipped rather than gulped at hungrily.

          Barrel Project 19.10 deserves an 8.25 out of 10. It’s full, smooth, and flavorful. It deftly walks the line between being big and bold versus being so big and bold that you can barely drink it. Pour a glass, light a fire in the fireplace (if you have one) and let this beer take the chill off on a cold winter night.

Hockley Dark

 

          When I first moved out on my own, I lived near one of those fake English pubs you see all over the place these days. When I went down the pub for a pint, I gravitated naturally towards the English ales they had on tap. I sought out those fine English ales because I didn’t like the pale fizzy stuff my parents drank. And yet, it somehow never occurred to me not to drink beer as a young adult. After all, there were certain things you were supposed to do when you graduated high school. You were supposed to get a job, move out on your own, and go out for beer on the weekends or after work.

To this day, I often prefer traditional English brews to the admittedly innovative beers offered by their north American counterparts. According to the wide, wide world of web Hockley Dark offers the best of both worlds. According to the company website, Hockley Dark offers the best elements of two traditional styles of English ale. Hockley Brewing’s brewmaster took the flavor and character of the English mild and northern brown ales in an attempt to make something at once new, delicious, and familiar to fans of English beer. Hockley Dark fills my glass a dark ruby color, edging towards leathery brown. Pinpoint carbonation supports a rocky, cream colored head with decent retention.

          The aroma starts out with a combination of bread malts and ripe fruit esters. In the middle I get nuttiness like you would find in a good English brown ale. Hints of leather and earth combine with brown sugar sweetness. Ripe fruit esters remind me overall of dark stone fruits. All of this combines together without giving an impression of overpowering sweetness. I think the aromas of nuts, leather, and earth combine to balance out the beer’s other aromas.

          On the tongue, Hockley Dark is smooth with a pleasant, up front sweetness. It tastes somewhat like a combination of rye bread, toffee, and the sweetness of ripe fruit. In the center I get a combination of earthiness and nuttiness, giving Hockley Dark’s flavor depth and structure. Medium carbonation helps carry these flavors smoothly, and easily across the tongue.

          Overall, I’m giving Hockley Dark 7.5 out of 10. In making this beer, Hockley Brewing combined the English northern brown ale with the English mild. These are two beers that are very similar to each other, but have their own differences. Hockley Dark does a very decent job combining those qualities into a cohesive whole. I very much like how this beer presents sweet flavors balanced with more earthy flavors, giving the whole thing a very drinkable balance.

Fuller's Old Winter Ale

 

          I’m not a big fan of winter. The colder it gets, the more I want to not leave the house. One thing I look forward to however, is having something strong, malty, and delicious. Those strong, malty beers often take the form of barleywines, Baltic porters, or Russian imperial stouts. Sometimes though, the harder to define winter ale will find its way into my glass. Despite its history, winter ale can be hard to define because it’s not really a beer style like an IPA or a pilsner.

Winter ales have a history dating back to the 1600s, a time when people didn’t enjoy the comforts of central heating. In addition to a roaring fire, a winter ale was designed to help take the edge off of winter’s chill. Up until the 19^th century, many of these beers were served warm and seasoned with ginger, nutmeg, and other spices. The tradition of serving these beers warmed faded away when more highly hopped beers entered the market. Apparently, those hop flavors don’t take kindly to being served warm.

Today, winter ales are maltier beers with alcohol content falling somewhere between 6 and 8% abv. While everyone has their own unique take on the style, most have a flavor profile designed to evoke the yuletide spirit. Fuller’s Old Winter Ale is crystal clear and deep copper colored, with reddish highlights. Thin streams of CO2 support a packed, cream colored head with decent retention.

          My first impression of this beer’s aroma is that it’s very malt forward with a notable brown sugar sweetness. It’s a much richer aroma than I was expecting. Malty sweetness moves quickly into a center I find leather, earth, and a sort of rum and raisins quality, only without the raisins. Overall, Old Winter Ale’s aroma reminds me of something that might have spent time in a barrel, though I can find no evidence of this actually being the case. Somehow, it the malt, sweetness, and rum notes all combine to remind me of Christmas without smelling of the usual Christmas spices or aromas.

          Taking a sip, Fuller’s Old Winter Ale is smooth, with very restrained carbonation. It’s malty up front leading into a center that is offers flavors of both nuts and leather. In that sense it reminds me of an English brown ale. Brown sugar sweetness is there, but more subdued, taking a supporting role next to the other flavors. All of this leads to a crisp bitterness that is very English in nature. Which is to say, earthiness and peppercorns rather than citrus and pine. Definitely the right choice for a traditional English beer.

          Overall, I’m giving Fuller’s Old Winter Ale an 8 out of 10. The flavor and aroma on this beer are very much what you’d expect in a winter ale. Specifically, it smells and tastes like Christmas. But at the same time, it smells and tastes like a well crafted English ale. That balance makes this a very good beer to have during the Christmas season or at any time during the winter season.

Export Porter 1750

 

          I don’t know why, but I’m always pleasantly surprised to find a new craft beer from somewhere in Europe. Somehow, craft beer feels like it should be the exclusive purview of Canada and the U.S. That doesn’t seem to be the case these days. With new breweries showing up in Scotland, Denmark, and nations across the continent, perhaps Brouwerij Kees shouldn’t be a surprise. Having tried beer from some of Europe’s other craft breweries I was excited to try this Baltic porter from the Netherlands.

Brouwerij Kees opened its doors in the town of Middelburg in 2015. Soon after, Ratebeer voted it one of the world’s best craft breweries. Today, Kees produces almost a dozen styles of beer, some traditional old world beers, and others inspired by north American styles. As I researched this review, I was surprised to see how soon after opening this brewery expanded sales of its products as far away as Canada and the U.S. Export Porter 1750 pours into my glass thick, viscous, and as black as anything I’ve ever seen. The beer supports a rocky, coffee and cream colored head with good retention.

          The nose is an enticing combination of chocolate mousse, roasted oats, and an alcoholic richness that reminds me of a really nice bourbon. Hints of licorice in the center add enjoyable depth to the beer’s aroma. This is where I find aromas of ripe dark fruits, somewhere in between cherries and figs. The whole profile feels like it’s held together by just the barest hints of tobacco, holding the aroma together like a web.

          On the tongue, Export Porter 1750 is rich, lush, and nothing short of seductive. Alcoholic flavors of bourbon lead the charge, followed up by flavors of dark, ripe fruit. Flavors of roasted grain come in on the center, just enough to give the flavor structure and support. There seems to be a cereal flavor in here that reminds me of oatmeal. It gives the moutheel a smoothness that reminds me of an oatmeal stout. The finish is only slightly bitter, cleansing my palate for the next eagerly awaited sip.

          I’m giving Export Porter 1750 an 8.25 out of 10. It’s rich and lush, complex, and at the same time accessible in its drinkability. Flavors of alcohol are present and noticeable, but not in a harsh, rocket fuel fashion like in cheaper, more “ghetto” style strong beers. If anything, the alcohol content is as smooth and luxurious as the rest of the beer. This is a perfect beer to drink on a cool winter night in front of an open fire.

Blackstone Porter

As winter descends over the prairies and the mercury plummets to temperatures below freezing, I begin to hunger for darker, maltier beers. In particular, I find myself yearning for a good porter whether it be English, robust, Baltic, or otherwise. Somehow that lush mouthfeel combined with intense flavors of malt, chocolate, and roasted grain combine to become an almost perfect winter elixir. I only wish I had a fireplace to sit beside and a smoking jacket to wear while enjoying such a brew.

Driftwood opened for business back in 2008 offering a pale ale and two Belgian beers. Since then, Driftwood has steadily expanded its lineup to include almost a dozen year round beers and a couple of seasonals. For extra points, Driftwood produces a variety of styles instead of making repeated variations on the IPA. Blackstone Porter pours into my glass thick, and jet black in color. It supports a rocky, coffee-and-cream colored head with good retention.

          The first thing I smell is rich, chocolate sweetness, reminding me of something like a chocolate mousse. Blackstone’s nose has an overall creaminess to it that is very enticing. Somewhere beneath that creaminess is a subtle aroma that I can only describe as ashy. Ashiness is low key enough to add to the overall aroma rather than detract. Blackstone’s finish is gently roasted, just enough to keep that initial sweetness in check.

          On the tongue, Blackstone Porter is thick, rich, and luscious, just as a porter should be. Chocolate flavors up front are more bitter sweet, balanced by a pronounced roasted grain quality. Moving towards the center, Blackstone’s flavor becomes briefly creamy again, giving momentary relief from flavors of roasted grain. Flavors of roasted coffee come in towards the finish, blending nicely with roasted grain helping give this porter a pleasantly dry, roasted finish.

                   Overall, I’m giving Blackstone Porter an 8 out of 10. This is a very well executed porter. It’s smooth and robust, and robust. And yet, Blackstone Porter is very drinkable. I appreciate the overall profile this beer offers because it would be so easy for a porter to be one extreme or the other. So many porters are either simple, one note beers or are so complex they have to be sipped at over the course of an evening.

 

Autobahn Munich Dunkel

 

When it comes to traditional, old world beer styles, I love European beer. I love England for its ales, Belgium for its no holds barred approach to brewing, and Germany for its lagers. Germany gives us such a wide variety of lager ranging from the palest pilsners to lagers almost as dark as any English brown ale. And those dark German lagers are often as refreshing as their lighter cousins despite their dark color and richer, more developed flavor profile. The Munich dunkel is no exception.

Coming from the German word for “dark,” Munich Dunkel traces its history back to the 1800s when advances in technology changed how barley was roasted into the malt used to make beer. New kilning technology allowed barley to be roasted without using open fire which gave malt a smoky flavor. It also allowed barley to be roasted with a finer degree of control. This allowed maltsters to produce malt with smoother flavors leading to dark lagers with more depth of flavor. Autobahn Munich Dunkel fills my glass with a medium brown colored lager with hints of ruby. The head is dense, cream colored, and lasting.

          On the nose, Autobahn is a malty beast, but beastly in a good way. The aroma is bready, although not the biscuit or white bread I’ve noted in other beers. Rather, it’s more like a rye bread. And toasted rye at that. Toasted rye becomes more earthy in the center coupled with a sweetness I have trouble identifying at first. The sweetness is something not unlike fresh, ripe dates. Underneath all this is just the barest whiff of chocolate before moving into a dryish finish.

          As I take my first sip, I find a beer that is medium bodied with a smooth, almost oily mouthfeel. Modest carbonation prevents the mouthfeel from becoming cloying. Flavors are just as malty as the nose, but skew a little sweeter than I expected. Up front flavor gives me just a taste of chocolate before moving into that toasted rye bread quality. In the center I find that note of chocolate blending nicely with a subtle nuttiness. The finish is leathery, and gently bitter.

          Overall, I’m giving Autobahn Munich Dunkel 7.25 out of 10. With all of its rich, malty flavors, this Munich Dunkel is very drinkable, very enjoyable. Admittedly, Autopbahn’s mouthfeel caught me off guard, having what I described as a slightly oily quality. Thankfully, the beer’s flavor profile gave this dunkel enough structure and character to make Autobahn well worth trying.

Weekend Vibes IPA

 

          Today’s review puts me well into my second full month of reviewing beer from around the world. One of the more persistent challenges in finding beer to review is picking something that isn’t an American style of IPA. American IPAs seem to dominate the shelves of my local liquor stores. And to make matters worse, the American IPA has splintered into its own substyles, specifically the west coast IPA and the New England IPA. For me, the challenge is evaluating an IPA like Weekend Vibes by the right criteria, as there are differences between the two types of IPA.

Both styles of beer use lots of hops, but the west coast uses them at the start of the boil, extracting their bittering power. New England IPAs use their hops towards the end of the boil, extracting more flavor and aroma rather than a more intense bitterness. West coast IPAs tend to have a distinctly citrus, grapefruit, pine needle hop profile. New England on the other hand, has a softer, juicier hop profile, which some drinkers would describe as being more “accessible.” Weekend Vibes pours into my glass only slightly hazy and pale straw in color. Minimal carbonation supports a cloudy, bone white head with good retention.

          As I hold Weekend Vibes to my nose, I’m confronted with an assertive, borderline aggressive, yet pleasant hop aroma. Weekend Vibes’ aroma is a fairly seamless blend of bready, soda cracker malts and hops from the pacific northwest. The aroma’s hop profile starts off with a base of pine resin mixed with notes of lemon. All of this leads into a finish that is kind of earthy with maybe just a hint of what could be caramel as well.

          On the tongue, Weekend Vibes starts medium bodied and initially sweet. It seems malty, toasted bread and demarara sugar balanced with soda cracker and a vaguely herbal quality. Flavors build towards a somewhat spicy center before leading into a big hop finish. The flavor profile on the hops has a much more woodier quality than what they provided in the aroma, which I’m finding more enjoyable. Somehow, that woody quality lends character to the beer.

          Overall, I’m giving Weekend Vibes an 8 out of 10. I’m finding this to be a very respectable IPA in that it’s flavorful and has a decent character. The malt profile is present without being so intense as to make this beer hard to drink. And I can say the same thing about the hop profile. Weekend Vibes’ hop profile is outright assertive without being so aggressive as to be hard to drink. I think this would be a really good balance to creamy soups or any slightly fatty dish like fish and chips.

Scona Gold

 

When I first heard that Alley Kat Brewing had been purchased by new owners, I was saddened. I had expected Alley Kat to be another in a long line of independent breweries to be bought out by some faceless corporation. Happily, that wasn’t the case. Instead, owners Neil and Lavonne Hebst sold the brewery to Cameron French and Zane Christensen, two men from neighboring St. Albert. French and Christensen had originally intended to start their own brewery but couldn’t resist the opportunity to take over a successful company with an established lineup of popular beer.

So far we’re almost a year into the sale, and the new owners seem happy to honor Alley Kat’s core lineup as well as its seasonal beers. The biggest new addition to the company so far seems to be a recently opened tap room at the brewery itself. As of this writing, I’m curious to see what French and Christensen do with their new brewery in upcoming years. Scona Gold is crystal clear and the color of ripe hay. Light carbonation supports a fluffy, bone white head with good retention.

          Scona Gold’s aroma starts off a delicate balance of bready pale malts and subtle fruitiness. The fruitiness I’m smelling is delicate in nature, and yet ripe and present enough to be easily noted. To me it comes across somewhere between ripe pear and nectarine or apricot. Either way, very pleasant with just enough aroma of soda cracker and fresh baked bread to give the nose its own little backbone. All of this moves towards a center where I find what smells to me like white wine and just a faint whiff of sulfur. All of this drops away into a crisp, clean finish.

          Taking a sip, Scona Gold reminds me more of a lager at first. The flavor up front is smooth and crisp, tasting more of soda cracker than I thought it would based on the beer’s overall aroma. Flavors of soda cracker lead into a slightly vinous center coupled with a hint of residual sweetness. The finish is dry without being overly so, finishing with the peppery flavor of European hops.

          Overall, I’m giving Scona Gold a 7.5 out of 10. Scona Gold is crisp, clean, balanced like and good European lager would be. It also has the vinous, and subtle fruitiness you might expect from a good Kolsch as well. I find it impressive when a craft brewery is able to produce a faithful, respectful version of a classic European beer. The attitude is so often to produce an eclectic interpretation of said style. To that end, personally I’m happy Alley Kat was able to make their Scona Gold into a very good Kolsch style beer.

The Optimist Double IPA

 

          When I saw The Optimist Chardonnay Barrel Aged Double IPA at my local liquor store, I snatched it off the shelf without a second thought. For oh, so many reasons, I knew I was going to have to try this beer out. What reasons exactly? Well for one thing, it was nice to see a barrel aged beer on the shelf that wasn’t a porter, stout (imperial or otherwise), or barleywine. For another, it was aged in a barrel not used to make bourbon or some other kind of whiskey. Rather, Grizzly Paw Brewing decided to use chardonnay barrels to age their beer.

Personally, I’m a fan of barrel aging beer. Let’s not forget that all beer was aged in wood barrels before stainless steel came along in the 1960s. The difference today though, I breweries don’t just use plain old oak to age their beers. No, they add an extra dimension of flavor by ageing beer in barrels that already fermented other alcoholic beverages. This way a beer can take on flavors of bourbon, red wine, sherry, and so on. The possibilities can be endless, even if some breweries do seem to follow the trend of ageing ports and stouts instead of anything else. The Optimist is a hazy, pale amber colored ale, almost lemon in color. Thin streams of CO2 rise through the glass supporting a pillowy, bone white head.

          The Optimist is fragrant with a perfumed, floral, hop forward aroma that is difficult to separate out into individual threads. On the one hand, the nose is definitely hop forward, full of citrus, lemon rind, and an overall floral quality. Somewhere in the background I catch hints of soda cracker. Then I find aromas from barrel aging coming in, perhaps just a tiny bit on the heavy side. The barrel aging gives the nose an aroma that is earthy in its woody qualities.

          Taking a sip, The Optimist is up front medium bodied with flavors of wood taking the lead. Carbonation is spritzy and restrained. As flavors move across the tongue, notes of wood dominate covering up any flavors of malt one might otherwise notice. Carbonation and flavors of wood do lead easily into a finish that is crisp and assertively bitter. Interestingly, that bitterness feels more European than American. I don’t think that’s such a bad thing given how well the barrel aging dominates the beer’s overall flavor profile.

          Overall, I’m giving The Optimist Chardonnay Barrel Aged a 6.25 out of 10. My main issue with the beer is that it seems to fire on just the one note, the barrel aging. I think I would have enjoyed the beer more if it had more of its own character for that barrel aging to build on. Personally, I find it that much more disappointing because the beer’s aroma seemed to have something to offer. On the tongue though, it just seemed to fall apart somewhat.