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.