Bottle, many thanks to James for the sample on 6/10/16. A good night cap!
Still, mahogany-to-ebony body shows good clarity and no head, of course.
Ahhhh...that’s a lovely laphroaig nose full of iodine, with brown bread, caramel and prunes behind it and some warming but still rather subdued alcohol notes behind it. Chocolate, moderate Belgian esters adding a nice fruitiness and more iodine linger on the finish. Very sniffable and quite easygoing given its 80 proof moniker.
Woody and with some sharp whiskey tones but also a soft vanilla-caramel malt that helps soften things somewhat. Iodine, of course, and light chocolate, with prunes, raisins and again, no undesirable oxidative notes. Some breadiness is really the extent of any oxidation and it’s not problematic at all. Vanilla and some fruity esters join the smoke on the finish as the light caramel continues to add a pleasant texture.
Obviously in a completely different class of their own, beers like this, in my mind should be rated more as whiskeys and not taken as some weird barleywine hybrid. Definitely enjoyment factor has to be the main guide here, as it’s silly to hold this to any extant beer style, for which none remotely fit it. For what it is, I think it’s fantastic and would very happily buy a bottle if I saw one.