13th November 2019
Almost clear reddish amber beer, small pale tan head. Smooth palate, modest fine carbonation. Mellow malts, touches of cream and caramel. Mild spice. Unwanted esters. Rum? On the back end, nowhere near as strong as you might expect. A fairly lame barrel ageing on this one and easily the weakest in this otherwise decent series.

Bottle. Dark amber color. Dried fruit, vanilla, rum and soft herbal notes in the aroma. Malty sweet flavor with dried fruit, soft herbal notes, rum, vanilla. Alcoholic. Full bodied with a syrupy mouthfeel.

One of several barrel aged variants on Jopen's rye wine made in collaboration with Lervig (at least originally), this one having spent time in rum barrels. Thin but edge-retaining, pale greyish beige, bit mousy head with some flat 'islands' in the middle; dark glowing bronze-brown robe with burgundy reddish hue, cloudy from the start. Rich, sweet, desserty aroma of toffee, milk chocolate bars, strong vanilla-scenting oak, sweetbread, plum pudding, sweet brown rum, pecan nut cake, sugared tea, soggy brown (rye?) bread, shoe polish, wet clay, ripe pear or even pear syrup, brown honey, tawny port, whisky, quite outspoken medicinal phenolic aspect (plaster, band aid), freshly varnished wood, cloves, even some light nail polish remover. Sweet onset, brown sugariness but nowhere too sticky, quite lively estery fruitiness of ripe banana, ripe pear and blue plum, sourish undertone (blackberry), softish carbonation, very full and vinous, rounded mouthfeel; thick toffeeish maltiness continues the sweetness in the middle, but with a mild nutty edge and a strong 'soggy' breadiness, including that underlying sourish tone that increasingly reveals itself as coming from the rye, which must have been applied here very generously (and also accounts for a certain glueish feel and a mild, dull spiciness, no doubt). Sweet fruity aspects continue over this malt sweet and lightly sourish middle, towards a boozy, warming finish, where the sweetness and spiciness of the rum come to full glory, along with its peppery alcohol heat. Unignorable solventy effects play on top of this, as if a dash of methylated spirits or varnish was thrown in, but the sugary and malty sweetness form a thick 'bed' even in the finishing stage, which shows itself capable of absorbing a lot of this obnoxious phenolic solventiness. Still the medicinal plaster-like effect lingers and should not be there. Fruity aspects keep lingering along this solventy and boozy effect, with a dash of earthy hop bitterishness thrown in, adding some structurally important yet altogether quite subtle background bitterness. Meanwhile, the vanilla-ish effect of the oak wood has revealed itself too, but its tannic dryness remains relatively limited, so that, all things taken into account, the whole beer ends primarily sweet and boozy, with - not unimportantly - a pronounced yeasty breadiness and earthiness as well. Like most other barrel aged modern strong Jopen beers, whether it be stouts or barleywines like this one, this beer is too boozy and - much worse - way too solventy-phenolic for its own good; this brewery needs to learn how to downplay on those elements before the quality levels of similar beers by e.g. De Molen or former Emelisse will be achieved. For me these factors impair drinkability a bit too much, but of course this example remains a 'tour de force' with the rye played out very explicitly and very tastefully. As for style: rye wine is a 21st-century American play on the old barleywine theme and often - not that I had hundreds of them, scarce as they are - display this glueishness characteristic of rye, which is very much the case here as well. This element further lessens drinkability and in combination with the booziness and the high dosage of phenols, I am not sure whether this is a good thing at all. The sugary sweetness and estery fruitiness in this particular beer also remind me more of a quadrupel than of a barleywine... But enough complaining, it must also be said that the basic flavours (ignoring the medicinal phenols) do match well here, with the sweetness of the rum blending nicely with the malt and fruity sweetness of the beer itself; the vanilla effect of the oak is strong enough, and the phenolic aspect is admittedly a bit less strong and obnoxious than in many other barrel aged Jopens. In all, the balance here tips to the positive side for me: very good idea, well executed, but still with some obvious flaws that should not be too difficult to remedy.

Bottle, 330 ml from de Bierliefhebber. Shared with Max and JFK10000. Brown with beige head. Sweet, caramel, cotton candy, some rum, light alcohol, warming. Medium bodied. Bit thin.