Baby Jesus Barrel Aged (Oloroso)
Brouwerij 't Verzet in Anzegem, West Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Porter - Imperial Regular|
Score
7.41
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Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Fairly dry, sharp stout. Oloroso not very recognizable. Nice enough, but not the greatness I had hoped for.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
33cl bottle. A clear dark brown beer with a beige head. Aroma of strong dark reddish brown malt, red wine, wood, raisins. Taste of strong dark brown malt, chocolate, raisins, some wood.
Appearance - 9 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 8.5
The second barrel aged experiment on Baby Jesus, this time on oloroso (sherry) barrels; 33 cl bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck. Pale grey-beige, medium thick, moussy, opening but largely stable head, very dark chocolate brown robe - in fact as good as black, with just a thin slice of hazy burgundy near the bottom of the glass. Rich aroma of rum-soaked raisins, figs in 'jenever', indeed sherry but sweeter than the oloroso variant usually is, vanilla-scenting oak wood, molasses, brown bread crust, dry red wine, coffee grounds, cooked plums, nail polish, dry earth, dust. Fruity onset, lots of plum, cherry, pear and fig impressions, sweetish with a very light porcini-like umami accent and a dim sourish streak underneath, medium carbonated with full, smooth body; thick, brown-bready and caramelly dark maltiness, touch dark chocolate and something 'blood'-like around the edges, lingering dark fruitiness till deep into the finish, where woody tannins and that warming, sweet-sourish, grapey sherry effect adding layers of complexity. Coffee grounds, earthy hops and liquorice- and nutmeg-like phenolic accents further grace a long, increasingly boozy finish, ending with a considerable amount of peppery, hot alcohol, even some light solvent effects. Bit too 'hot' in that sense perhaps, but nothing a few years of ageing will not solve - so I focus on the fact that this is a truly beautiful, rich, dark, earthy, fruity porter full of layers of flavour, a true masterpiece in that sense and probably (at least to me) the best Baby Jesus variant so far. Kudos to the Verzet team!