Sampled @ Billie's Craft Beer Fest 2022, Saturday Session. A clear orange brown beer with a beige head. Aroma and Taste of strong dark malt, vanilla, bourbon.

26th July 2022
A lively opener. Very hazy deep amber brown beer, big bubbly pale tan head. Fruity bourbon nose. Airy palate, smooth, decent fine carbonation. Fluffy malts bring a nice soft creaminess. Bountiful fruity bourbon carries over from the nose. A vanilla oaky vibe rounds things off. Had one job, show of the Forrester Bourbon barrel, did it well.

Bourbon barrel aged barleywine in the new ‘Reserva’ series by Atrium, a series of highly profiled but also very limited brews. Bottle from Poseidon Beers. Thickly moussy, frothy, pale yellowish beige, membrane-like lacing head on a hazy caramel brown beer with ruddy-bronze glow. Aroma of hazelnut liqueur and hazelnut shells, almond, clear bourbon, vanilla from both the wood and the bourbon, brown honey, fig compote, canned pineapple, oak wood, white port, clove, candied cherries, subtle hints of white chocolate and rosewater. Sweet, ‘candied’ onset, yellow raisins and candied fig, some ripe pear, apricot jam and baked banana, softish carb, full and vinous body; residual ‘brown’ sugariness sweetly stretches over a caramelly and biscuity middle, with almost ‘syrupy’ effect. Very mild toasty bitterish accent in the end, honeyish sugariness remaining dominant though, but working well with a drying tannic woodiness (and retronasal vanilla sensations). Candied and dried fruits linger in the end, alongside a slight herbal hop touch (tea) and warming, indeed very bourbon-like, but not overly forceful alcohol. Sweet, rich and desserty, closer to a quadrupel perhaps than a true Anglo-Saxon barleywine, but very well done indeed, if perhaps a tad too sweet for me personally.