Hunt for Red Oaktober

Beer #13 of my #7000 Beer Celebration - 7 on either side of the milestone. Super hazy brown and amber coloured body with a thinnish, single centimetre tall off-white head. Aroma of pungent oak and cedar woodsey notes along with a good malt punch and a touch of grain with nuts towards the end and a pleasant sweetness as well. Light to Medium-bodied; Relatively strong dose of malt and cedar with a good oak (no surprise there) flavour showing vanilla and cognac/bourbon elements alongside the yeast and malt with a relatively strong pungent kick from dry grasses towards the end. Aftertaste shows the punch of the oak and grain more than anything else with a large punch of yeast, complex wood and cedar elements and a very drying finish, but no real fruit or sweetness throughout. Overall, a nice beer that shows a decidedly woodsy, oak and dry flavour without much of the complexities from a sour or 'wild ale', but also a nice range for the style, which I don't feel like it belongs, although I'm a bit hard-pressed to say where else it fits. Nice to sample, especially during a 'special occassion'. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Vintage Sellers in Great Falls, Montana on 20-June-2016 for US$7,50 sampled at my house in Washington on 29-August-2018.

22 ounce bottle.

Pours red, oh my, with a small but persistent head of foam.

The smell reeks from the Bourbon barrel aging but is also strong with the caramel malt.

The taste brings no surprises. Sweetish from the caramel malt, hints of booziness that isn’t really there from the Bourbon barrels. Weird for a BA beer to be only 5.3% abv but here you have it and it works.

Light end of medium bodied...ditto for the carbonation.

I am pretty impressed.