Kentucky Old Fashioned Barrel Ale
Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co. in Lexington, Kentucky, United States 🇺🇸
Strong Ale Rotating|
Score
6.42
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It’s a copper-colored brew that plays off the beloved taste of a bourbon Old Fashioned – the most iconic of Southern cocktails. This seasonal is brewed with tart cherries and orange peel, then aged in fresh bourbon barrels as well as bourbon barrels used to age bitters. Kindly donated Cherry Bitters barrels, originally used by Kentucky’s finest distillers, impart their wonderful character on this beer. Subtly sweet, it’s balanced by bitter hints of hops and bitters, as well citrusy notes of orange.
BARREL-AGED SEASONAL SERIES — Nestled in the heart of bourbon country where bourbon barrels outnumber people, Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company produces a Barrel-Aged Seasonal Series that capitalizes on its close proximity to the region and the changing taste preferences of the seasons. All of these beers are produced in Kentucky, aged in freshly decanted Kentucky bourbon barrels, 100% barrel-aged, and produced in bourbon barrels only used once.
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
bottle - Pours clear copper with a one finger head. The aroma is malty with citrus, a little caramel, and alcohol. The flavor is sweet with malt and some fruity notes. Bourbon is very subdued. Alcohol is noticeable but not super strong. Medium bodied. This beer is alright but the premium price on this brewery's barrel aged beers raises expectations and to me it's not quite meeting them.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
12 ounce bottle into tulip glass, bottled on 10/26/2017. Pours crystal clear deep orange amber/light copper color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense and fluffy off white head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of caramel, brown sugar, cherry, apricot, orange peel, toffee, vanilla, honey, coconut, toasted oak, bourbon, biscuit, herbal, and oak/toasted earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/bready malt, cherry, orange peel, and bourbon/bitters barrel notes; with solid strength. Taste of big caramel, brown sugar, cherry, apricot, orange peel, toffee, vanilla, honey, coconut, toasted oak, bourbon, biscuit, herbal, and oak/toasted earthiness. Mild herbal/spice bitterness and bourbon/oak spiciness on the finish. Lingering notes of caramel, brown sugar, cherry, apricot, orange peel, toffee, vanilla, honey, coconut, toasted oak, bourbon, biscuit, herbal, and oak/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready malt, cherry, orange peel, and bourbon/bitters barrel flavors; with a nice malt/bitter/spiciness balance, and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Slightly increasing dryness from bitterness and bourbon/oak spiciness. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/grainy, and slightly silky/slick/sticky/tannic balanced mouthfeel that is nice. Minimal warming alcohol for 10%, zero barrel booze. Overall this is a very nice imperial cocktail style beer. All around nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready malt, cherry, orange peel, and bourbon/bitters barrel flavors; very smooth and easy to drink for the big ABV. Not nearly as spice heavy as other cocktail beers I've had; but it has a really great balance of malts, cherry, orange peel, and bourbon barrel character. No overpowering flavors. A very enjoyable offering, and well made experimental beer.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5
12 oz bottle. Pours a copper color with moderate head of big bubbles. Aromas of artificial fruit, alcohol and wet malts. Flavors of brown sugar, stale bourbon, medicinal cherry and dry malts.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
After reading a few of the other comments I expected a lot more out of this. What I got was an aroma that’s understated fruit, malt, and a hint of lumber. Flavor’s mostly sweet tart, with little bitter. There is some sweet tart flavor, but it’s mostly generic with only a suggestion of cherry. No bourbon or anything else. A little boozy in the finish, but that comes and goes. Not bad beer, but nothing special.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4
Bottle in hotel room Orlando 2016... Brown.. Thin tan lacing... Soft woody balsamic funk nose... Soft toffee.. Bitter herbal woody malts.. Not me
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5.5
12oz bottle, undated shared by Blisscent on 1/31/16.
Clear, cherry-tinged marmalade colored body has little carbonation and a quickly receding, off-white head.
Very pleasantly surprised by the nose....soft bourbon adds spiciness and pina colada notes while cherry and orange zest add complexity. Nothing is overdone and it’s nicely round/mellow. That being said, other than a moderate amount of caramel malt, there’s little in the way of beer here so it’s hard to give it very high marks. No alcohol in the nose is nice.
Unfortunately the flavor falls very short. Mostly on account of the utterly stripped texture and loose, forced carbonation. Malts are nutty, lightly sweet and somewhat tired. Adjuncts and bourbon seem less interesting in the flavor than nose, coming off muddled and not altogether authentic. Not terrible though, and if they committed to making a better, less novel beer, they certainly could.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
At a tasting, thanks, small stable creamy head, quite clear deepish orange color, aroma of sweet spices vanila, butter and ginger, flavor of sweet spices with cake maltiness, pumpkin, coconut and strawberry jam. A bit to sweet but still very enjoyable.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5
Bottle sample at a tasting at Alexey’s place. Thanks Ilya. Clear golden. Spicy aroma with wood, vanilla, fruits, caramel, alcohol. Sweet flavor with caramel, spices, wood, vanilla, fruits, alcohol. Medium-bodied, kinda boozy. Not really my thing.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Sample at Daily Growler Powell. Clear amber color with a medium off-white head that recedes quickly to an outer ring. Spotty lacing. Aroma of bourbon, oak and citrus. Full-bodied with a cloyingly sweet bourbon and cherry flavor, with some malt in the background. The finish is boozy with a bourbon and citrus aftertaste. Decent overall.