High Seas (Bourbon Barrel Edition)

Bottled. A black beer with a thin brown head. The aroma has notes of roasted malt, bourbon, vanilla, and dark chocolate. The flavor is sweet with notes of dark chocolate, bourbon, vanilla, roasted malt, and some smoke, leading to a bitter finish. 7/4/7/4/14

37.5 cl bottle. Pours dark brown to black, small tan head. Aroma is roasted dark malty. Bitter, dark malty. Roasted. Lingering dark malty. Roasted far finish.

Small dark beige head over jet-black beer. Musk, animal fur, husks, mild roast, fusels. Violets, roast, black chocolate, alcohol & fusels. Bourbon. Again animal, feral. Very full bodied, alcoholic if not raw; alcoholheat. Quite nice porter, one to sip.

Black with a small tan head. Light roasted notes, bittersweet dark chocolate, molasses, umami, toasted sesame, and very ripe dark red fruits. Medium to full slick body. While not a favorite, it’s very interesting and worth a shot.

Bottle 37,5 cl. Pours an opaque black with a rough, light brown head. Intnse, sweet Bourbon aroma. Rich, sweet, roasty body with a hint of tobacco and again intense, sweet Bourbon. The barrel may seem a little to the rough side. Low carbonation, warming finish. 190623

Bourbon barrel aged Baltic porter by this trusted Danish craft brewer, sampled at LIBF, thanks Steve! Very thin and open, pale grey-beige ring of foam on a black beer with burgundy edges. Strong nose of coffee grounds, pecan nuts, toffee, rainwater (oddly), petrichor even, vanilla-scenting oak, bourbon but relatively subtly so compared with many similar beers, bitter chocolate, pipe tobacco, soy sauce. Sweet onset, even a tad sticky at first, dates, candied plum and raisins, with clear umami on top (soy sauce), softly carbonated with thick, oily body (though not overly syrupy); roasted pecan-nut- and brown-bread-crust like malt core, layers of toffee and bitter black chocolate as well, warmed by recognizable but not too obnoxious bourbon and gently dried by soft wood tannins, exuding some of that lovely oaky vanilla retronasally. Ends quite powerfully hopped in a spicy, herbal manner, but black chocolate and nuttiness prevail, along with a soft note of roasted coffee-like bitterness. Long finish in which everything works well together; nothing is too sharp or too harsh here so potent a beer as this may be, its different components remain in elegant balance. Lovely, complex sipper, worth its price tag.