Rum-Oaked
Bierfirma Ultima in Diepenbeek, Limburg, Belgium 🇧🇪
Brewed at/by: BeerSelectBarley Wine - Barley Regular
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Score
6.80
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CloakedDagger (37227) reviewed Rum-Oaked from Bierfirma Ultima 2 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle 33 cl. Pours a cloudy, opaque dark brown with a solid, light brown head. Tart, berry-like aroma with overripe fruit. Solid body, slight roast, overripe fruit and again a slight tartness with a woody edge and a touch of rum. Slight bitterness. Unusual. 090523
Tom (2085) ticked Rum-Oaked from Bierfirma Ultima 4 years ago
MarcoDL (7854) reviewed Rum-Oaked from Bierfirma Ultima 5 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle. Dark brown pour. Aroma of caramelised malt, raisin, rum booze, dates, chocolate, licorice and vanilla. Taste has boozy rum, caramelised malt, dates, figs, raisin, vanilla, yeast, chocolate, some oak and a boozy finish. Beer is a bit thin. Tastes like some rum is blended in, it's quite simple and unrefined. Not bad, but also not very good.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Rum-Oaked from Bierfirma Ultima 5 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Strong dark beer from this Limburgian 'bierfirma', aged on oak chips soaked in Belgian-made rum. Yellowish beige, densely small-bubbled and creamy, medium thick head, leaving only sparse lacing and showing gaps quickly, remaining for a while as a thin layer of cream, but eventually disappearing completely; initially clear, very dark bronze-brown beer (almost blackish in general appearance) with glowing ruby red hue, turning even darker (and hazy - but also as good as 'headless') in the end. Aroma of toffee, cold caramel sauce, brown sugar, crumbled cookies, candied plums, brown rum, tawny port, cinnamon sprinkled over fried apples, ripe blackberries, homemade cola, Belgian chocolates, candied banana, yellow raisin, treacle, fainter hints of 'oaky' vanilla, dry tea bags, sweat and very vague and volatile background hints of plastic and rusty iron. Sweet onset, a layer of treacle covering underlying fruitiness of banana, fig and pear but in a cleanish, quite focused way, with a very light sourish undertone and medium carbonation; full, even somewhat syrupy mouthfeel, with some of that dark sugar sweetness sticking a bit to the teeth. Thick toffeeish malt body, very caramelly but with a slight bitter-chocolatey touch to it as well, remaining sweet and straightforward, quickly warmed up by indeed rum-like alcohol, while a subtle whiff of vanilla betrays the presence of oak, albeit in a volatile, superficial manner - I get none of the woody tannins that would have been so welcoming here against the sweetness. More warming alcohol from the beer itself is added, port-like and 'palpably' going down the chest without becoming annoyingly harsh or wry. Quite some lingering 'black sugary' sweetness, with only the faintest hint of herbal hop bitterishness and a slight bubblegummy effect, next to a brown-bready malt core that stretches out deep into the finish; hardly any yeast effects here, which I know should not be there in a barleywine (because that is apparently the style intended by the brewer), but which could perhaps have brought some structural variation and depth. Feels very clean, (too) polished and 'fabricated', almost industrially so, like e.g. Wilderen's Cuvée Clarisse (Wild Weasel version - also Limburgian, by the way, and I suspect that this is not a coincidence); clearly intended aimed at a reasonable degree of accessibility. Technically well-brewed, very smooth, but perhaps a bit too smooth; this needs more 'relief' and profiling, e.g. by toning down on the sweetness and using a more 'layered' malt bill. As for 'barleywine': this feels (and tastes and looks) much more like a quadrupel, really, apart from that remarkable yeast cleanness; I can - somewhat reluctantly - accept a 'dark barleywine' concept, but this one, in all, remains more of a quad to me. Correct, enjoyable, carrying an interesting twist, but a bit monochromous for a beer at this level of strength and potency. Less sweetness, less dark candi sugar and the use of actual barrels instead of those ridiculous liquor-soaked wood chips should be the decisions to make here.