Angel's Share - Bourbon Barrel
The Lost Abbey in San Marcos, California, United States 🇺🇸
Barley Wine - Barley Regular|
Score
8.23
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Admin Note: There are unique entries for Angel's Share aged in Brandy Barrels, Bourbon Barrels and Scotch Barrels.
Down in Kentucky and across the pond in Scotland, distillers who age their whiskeys for many years refer to the evaporation of the spirits from their barrels as “The Angel’s Share.” We couldn’t agree more. Each time a barrel is filled, a measure of liquid seeps into the oak and is lost for good.
This striking Strong Ale is brewed with copious amounts of Caramel malt to emphasize the vanilla and oak flavors found in freshly emptied bourbon or brandy barrels. The beer spends a year in oak before it is packaged for release. The beer is 12.5% ABV and is available in 375ml bottles and on draft at inspired locations.
The Angel’s Share Story
It’s warehouse #5 built in 1886 that gets the most attention. The other four weren’t built so well and succumbed over the years. On the outside, to most #5 is a rather unremarkable white washed building. That is until they pass through the weathered doors and are easily consumed. Here in the hallowed halls it just oozes history. Inside this three story building, they find row after row of whiskey slumbering away the days until the distiller calls their name and they are called into action.
It’s a weathered building with a timeline of over one hundred and twenty years of continuous service. Looking around, there is a warm orange glow from all the wood inside. On both sides of the room for as far as your eyes can see, there are wood racks with carvings, nicks and dings. It smells sweet in here. Could that be the Whiskey breathing? Perhaps it’s the angels doing their work? Or is there just something sweet about 200 year old wood that intoxicates your sense of smell.
Imagine the history that belongs to the wood in this “shed.” It comes from seeds that were planted when the idea for the Revolutionary War was just fermenting. And it’s still here, every single day telling the story of this distillery. This warehouse has seen it all. It survived the harsh winter of 1913. There was the Tornado in 1956 and who can forget the flood of 1973? But, it’s still here. Still working, living and breathing whiskey as great grandpa designed it to do.
Sure, there are more cobwebs and spiders than there used to be. It’s an old building after all. One of the family members proclaimed it to be a grand old warehouse of monumental importance, so now it’s on the National Registry of Historic Buildings. Yet, the premise has always been the same. We need a place to age those spirits. And #5 has always been there.
Ask the family members to describe #5 and they all tell you the same thing.”The angels get more than their fair share from #5 but we don’t care. To us, there is nothing finer than the whiskey that comes from old #5. We wish they drank less. But then again, we really don’t need an excuse to drink more?”
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8.5
12.7 oz bottle. 2016 vintage. Pours black with light head. Aromas of light bourbon, dark brown sugar/caramel, oak, and sweet roasted malts. Smooth flavors of sweet bourbon, light oaky whiskey, dry dark caramel, and sweet sticky roasted malts with a hint of chocolate. A little hot, but overall nicely balanced for a young barleywine.
Bit too sweet but still very smooth. The Bourbon barrel aged flavor ties nicely with the caramel malt.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Refrigerated 12.7 oz. brown bottle poured into a snifter. Clear dark brow with very small beige head. Aroma is bourbon, medium body, low carbonation, and very little lacing. Taste is bourbon, vanilla, oak, and a little booze.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Old rating rerated 09.12.2016, 0,375l bottle (2011 vintage?) shared with colleges @ work:
Nice creamy mediumlasting head. Aroma is slightly sweet mineraly, dark malts, burnt sugar, bourbon, minerals, oak, weeds, burnt caramel, grass, dark sugar, licorice, coffee, bark. Taste is slightly dry mineraly, dark malts, oak, dark sugar, minerals, bourbon, bark, burnt sugar, grass, licorice, rope, burnt caramel, coffee. Medium to longlasting bitterness, dry mineraly mouthfeel. Nice.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
(bottle) clear, bright, dark reddish brown colour with a small brown head; aroma of dried fruit, old wood; smooth palate; intense, balanced, dryish flavour, well hidden alcohol; long, light bitter finish
mart (27261) reviewed Angel's Share - Bourbon Barrel from The Lost Abbey 9 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Bottle (from beergium). Pours dark brown. Aroma is massive bourbon, vanilla, malt, caramel, alcohol. Flavor is sweet and bitter, caramel, vanilla, malt, bourbon. Finish is bourbon-malty-boozy. Drinkability is good. Overall: very good, but too boozy.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
2000th rating: 0.375 l bottle from ’Bierkompass’, bottled in 2014. Pitch black with a thin, frothy, slowly diminishing, beige layer. Sweetish-malty, very inviting aroma of bourbon, raisins, vanilla, prunes, figs, caramel and a bit of oak. Quite sweet, malty and slightly alcoholic taste of lots of bourbon, caramel, dark honey, vanilla, raisins, prunes and figs, followed by a long, slightly bitter, moderately warming-alcoholic, minimally oaky finish. Medium to full body, slightly oily and only a little effervescent mouthfeel, very soft carbonation. Very complex, intense and perfectly balanced. Although the bourbon is very prominent, it fits in so well and accompanies the heavy base beer in a fantastic way. Huge beer!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
37cl bottle. Dark caramel brown pour with a thin tan head that disappears almost instantly. The smell is dominated by notes of Heaven Hill whiskey, caramel, together with nuts, raisins, red wine barrel, a bit of smoke and vanilla. The taste is sweet and just a bit bitter, with caramel, maple syrup, apple brandy and bourbon, toffee and molasses. Full body, medium to low carbonation with a sticky sweet and alcohol heavy finish.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5
12.7 oz bottle thanks to Homer’s FBW contest. The bottling date looks like it might be 2013, but it’s a bit hard to read. Aroma is burnt caramel, coconut, chocolate, dark fruits, molasses, booze, wood. Pours muddy brown with a tiny beige head that falls immediately into a thin collar. Taste is sweet, alcoholic, a bit oxidized with sherry notes. Carbonation is very light, mouthfeel syrupy. Masterful, but a tad harsh. I would appreciate more carbonation.