Batch 001 bottled 6/1/2011. Pours with a murky brown body with a large tan head of foam with good retention and great lace. Aromas are estery, brown sugar, molasses, bourbon, mild melanoidins, chewy, leather and caramel. Flavors are of barrel, vanillin, bitter with a slightly oxidized hop character. Tannic, caramelized, vanilla, dark fruits, oak, coconut, raisins. Pretty complex with a nice bourbon character. Easily the best beer that I have had from Shmaltz to date. Medium to fuller carbonation for a big beer, warming, with a tannic finish.

Grabbed a bottle to go from Ginger Man. Pours brown with huge head that goes no where, perfect looking beer. Great lacing and a nose of candy and malt. Tastes of pecan pie, vanilla, bourbon, brown sugar, and figs. A touch sweet for my liking but very enjoyable.

Pours a medium/dark brown with a light tan head. Complex aroma of alcohol, dried fruits and caramel malt. The flavor is boozy and sweet. Lots of the bourbon. This might need time to mellow out.

22 oz. bottle, pours a dark amber with a small tan head. Aroma is like a sherry, with caramel, dark fruits, boozy liqueurs and some wood. Flavour is quite sweet, with sweet sherry / brandy, caramel, candied sugar and some faint wood (though the barrels are not so pronounced in this aspect). A little cloying in sweetness, but quite solid. Actually enjoyed the original Human Blockhead more.

On tap at Fireworks in Arlington VA. Pours a clear, root beer brown with a thin, creamy white head. Nose has some fruity, booziness of a dopplebock with some lurking sweetness, caramel, vanilla etc from the barrel. The nose is not bad though. The flavor is where things start to go downhill. There’s just too much residual sugar. It’s cloying, overly malty like an imperial pils. The barrel is there with vanilla, caramel, but it’s over the crappy lager base and it just doesn’t mesh. A little hot too.

Bottle. Pours clear brown with a tan head. Nose/taste of raisin, oak, bourbon barrel, caramel and toffee. Medium body. Smooth dark raisin finish.

Expensive as hell bomber pours dark clear ruby red with tan head. Based on my memory of the non-barrel aged version I am expecting something overly sweet and near undrinkable. Here goes. The aroma is smooth sweet bourbon, vanilla and wood with just noticeable levels of sweet malts and prunes well off in the background. The taste begins with a rush of sweet thick malts, uh oh, sweet sticky prunes and raisins. Just as you begin to understand the boldness of the sweet esters an even brasher bombardment of bourbon booze booziness, that only seems to get bolder and bolder, followed close by firm notes of oak and sweet vanilla and some caramel take complete control and hurry this thing into the finish. For the most part the barrel has eaten up the overly sweet beer that went into it. A little less barrel time would have been interesting to try.

Draft. Amber beer with a cream colored head. Bourbon and malt aroma. Bourbon and malt flavor with light mineral notes. Medium bodied. Bourbon and malt lingers with light mineral notes.