The Rusty Nail - Double Barrel
Fremont Brewing Company in Seattle, Washington, United States 🇺🇸
Stout - Pastry / Flavoured - Imperial Special|
Score
7.37
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The Rusty Nail Double Barrel begins life as The First Nail, an oatmeal stout of epic proportions with brewer’s licorice, smoked barley, and pale malt and is then aged on cinnamon bark. She becomes The Rusty Nail Double Barrel after spending 18 months in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels and then 4 months in Woodford Reserve Double Oaked bourbon barrels. The Rusty Nail Double Barrel pounds your palate, challenges your perception of all that you’ve known of beer, and leaves you wanting…a Double sip. “A fine beer may be judged by one sip, but it’s better to be doubly sure.” – VWP.
Down & Dirty: 2-Row Pale, Vienna, Midnight Wheat, Flaked Oats, Roast Barley, and Smoked malts with Magnum and US Goldings hops, and brewer's licorice and cinnamon bark.
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Dark brown. Rich and inky, nice and thick. The aroma is bright cinnamon, maybe cardamom and nutmeg but definitely those classic rusty nail spices. On the palate, it does feel like a deeper mace/cinnamon spiciness. Cassia? Get out the flavour wheel. The base is rich, syrupy, with a bit of chocolate. Alcohol rounds it out. The barrel is rounded, but also a bit brash. It's a big, assertive badass beer.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
375mL bottle, pours black with almost no head. Nose is still full of cinnamon bark upfront, with plenty of bourbon barrel, a touch of licorice, oak, leather, and miscellaneous spices. Flavour is likewise full of cinnamon bark, tons of hot bourbon, and oak. I’ve never been a huge fan of The Rusty Nail, due to the cinnamon, and the double barrels don’t save this. It’s still a good beer, but fails to deliver an elite experience for me.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Poured from 375mL bottle (2025 vintage). Very dark brown with minimal beige head. Super intense cinnamon bark (needs to mellow a bit - too much), mild barrel notes, good, but too much.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
375mL bottle. Pours deep dark brown with a small beige head. Tons of great bourbon character and woody spices on the nose. Flavour has deep bourbon, molasses, lots of dark liquorice, some woody spices. The spice profile is very strong, but the bourbon and malts are keeping balance. I'm still a fan.