Barrel Breed Christmas Ale 2015
Mountain Goat Beer in Richmond, Victoria, Australia 🇦🇺
Belgian Style - Quadrupel / Dark Strong Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.09
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We’ve been playing around with oak barrels for a few years now. We’re enchanted by what the simple storage of liquid in oak can do for a beer (or indeed a whisky or wine). So, after smuggling some Lark whisky barrels up from Tasmania late in 2014, it was time for us to send some of the biggest beers we’ve ever brewed into oak, then wait and see what happened.
These French oak barrels had been used for many years delivering their seductive colour and flavour characters to whisky. Once the blenders were finished, and the whisky went to glass, there remained several litres of whisky still trapped up to an inch into the oak. This is the brewer’s cut!
As we age our beer in these barrels, the heavily oaked whisky is drawn into the beer, imparting distinct vanilla/whisky sweetness to both the nose and palate. It also lifts the alcohol content of the beer.
This is Barrel Breed #3, our Christmas Ale. The beer style is a Belgian Quadrupel. It’s a big, subtly sweet, spicy brew that will sit perfectly alongside your plum pudding on Christmas Day.
It’s a rich beer, high in alcohol (10% abv). It will age until next Christmas if you wanted to cellar it. But there’s no reason to not drink it this year either!
These French oak barrels had been used for many years delivering their seductive colour and flavour characters to whisky. Once the blenders were finished, and the whisky went to glass, there remained several litres of whisky still trapped up to an inch into the oak. This is the brewer’s cut!
As we age our beer in these barrels, the heavily oaked whisky is drawn into the beer, imparting distinct vanilla/whisky sweetness to both the nose and palate. It also lifts the alcohol content of the beer.
This is Barrel Breed #3, our Christmas Ale. The beer style is a Belgian Quadrupel. It’s a big, subtly sweet, spicy brew that will sit perfectly alongside your plum pudding on Christmas Day.
It’s a rich beer, high in alcohol (10% abv). It will age until next Christmas if you wanted to cellar it. But there’s no reason to not drink it this year either!
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8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Stupid wax is still stupid if you show you know it’s stupid by putting two different colours on. Pretty much black with a good coat of light tan head that lasts very well and coats the glass. Muscular dried fruit and strong bread dough aroma, with raisins, dried bananas, peppery and vanillaish oak. Silky, alive and creamy texture reiterates what I liked about Mt Goat from the first Hightail I had. Full bodied with powerful fruit that’s very nicely kept in check by spiced bitterness, orange peel and a bit of leather along with the dough. No overt alcohol but it certainly drinks its weight. Right at the end there’s a little breath of whisky, but up to then I wouldn’t guessed. But it does creep up a bit after a while and become wearing enough that I wonder whether I should have shared the bottle.
Tried
from Bottle
on 05 Mar 2016
at 06:11