Bottle from HC&B, 2-10-18

Refrigerated 12 oz. brown bottle poured into a glass. Aroma is coffee, medium body, low carbonation, and very little lacing. Taste is coffee, rum, and oak.

Draft at Gollem. The famed rum barrel aged edition of Prairie Bomb!, with deep cream-beige coloured, medium head which quickly dissolves in the middle but otherwise retains well as a moussy ring, over a black beer with about one millimetre of hazy mahogany off the edge. Nose is immediately ’attacked’ by a lot of real rum, as a heavy layer on top of chocolate liqueur, hazelnut oil, glue, coconut flesh, candied dates, wood (as in wooden furniture), marzipan, amaretto, liquorish, pipe tobacco, shoe polish, wet leather. Expectedly intense flavour with candied sweet onset, dates, almond, some candied cherry, roasted barley underneath providing some sourish balance, initially quite ’prickly’ carbo but in a refined way of very small bubbles, thick and viscous mouthfeel. Dense nutty and caramelly malt body, chocolatey too but before the finish, a whole lot of burning, even fusel-like alcohol begins to dominate, with a lot of heat and a Bacardi-like, actual rum flavour; some vanilla-ish oak and peppery notes of both hop and the added chili peppers at the back, but the rum adds alcohol heat and sweetness to an extent which I personally find over the top. I do not like rum to begin with so this was never going to be my beer anyway, yet I could have forgiven this is if it weren’t so harsh and strong, obliterating the basic beer’s beauty too much. I prefer that stunning whisky barrel aged version way over this.

Draft glass @ Gollem: Omnipollo Craft Beer Madness. I keep getting frequently disappointed by Prairie beers, I really don’t get the hype. I don’t get how this is a top 50 RIS. 2014 / 2nd batch. Black with thick mocha deep chocolate head. Overly rubbish vegetable poor chili totally dominates the nose, poor vegetable thai & habanero chili, thin roasted mocha,... Taste is far too heavy on rubbish poor overly vegetable chili with molasses syrup, herbal, vegetable thin cacao, mocha, chocolate, sugar, overly alcoholic, plastic,... Plastic, very thick molasses syrup & far too vegetable chili. Awful overly vegetable chili totally ruins this beer for me.