Tag Archives: wine

Barrel Aged Belgain Tripel – Ravens Brewing Company

by Mike

From Ravens Brewing Company in Abbotsford comes their “Barrel Aged Belgain Tripel” a beer released for the breweries second anniversary.  The beer pours a cloudy golden orange colour with a white head.  The aroma consists of wine, oak, candied sugar, tannin and sweetness.  The flavour is of wine, oak, sweetness, candied sugar, tannins, citrus rind, vanilla and a low bitterness.  The alcohol content comes in at 9% and shows up in the flavour a bit with an IBU of 25.  While a Tripel is not my favourite style the wine barrels brought the sweetness back a bit for me and made it more enjoyable than most in this style.  This style can be a bit cloying for me usually.

INSEPT1ON Saison – Torque Brewing

by Mike

From Torque Brewing in Winnipeg Manitoba comes their “INSEPT1ON Saison” a beer aged in French Oak red wine barrels.  The beer pours a yellow colour with a white head.  The aroma consists of saison yeast, spices, oak, citrus and some wine in the finish.  The flavour is of wine, oak, yeast, pepper, bready malt, lemon and generic citrus with a mild bitterness.  The alcohol content comes in at 6%.  I really enjoyed this wine barrel aged saison and I hope they do more beers like this in the future.

Commercial Description:  Aged 6 months in French oak red wine barrels, this bottle conditioned Saison is both refreshing and light with hints of oak and vanilla.

 

Barrel Aged Dry Hop Blonde – Kettle River Brewing Co

by Mike

From Kettle River Brewing in Kelowna comes their “Barrel Aged Dry Hop Blonde”.  This beer was bottled on March 11, 2016 from lot BR004.  The beer pours a copper colour with a white head.  The aroma consists of wine, citrus, oak and fruit.  The flavour is of wine, lots of citrus, biscuit, pine and some bitterness.  The alcohol content comes in at 6.4%.  I am not huge on wine dominated barrel aged beers but I do think that this one did work together well to make a good beer just not to my personal preference.  Thanks for picking this up for me Chelsea of Brewtiful British Columbia.

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Quadruple X Mild – Kettle River Brewing Co

by Mike

From Kettle River Brewing in Kelowna comes their first in their Endangered Series of aged beers “Quadruple X Mild” a beer aged in bottles for 6 months.  This beer was bottled on May 25th, 2016 and from lot 19.   The beer pours a deep cloudy amber colour with a small tan head.  The aroma consists of dark fruits, melon and caramel.  The flavour is of dark fruits and red wine (even though its not barrel aged) up front with lots of earth, resin, fruit rind, apple, caramel and bitterness in the finish.  The alcohol content comes in at 7.5% hence the name Quadruple X Mild.  This beer almost reminds me of a sessionable barleywine with its mix of flavours.  This is a great first aged release from a brewery and I look forward to future releases in this series!

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Belgian Golden Strong Ale (Barrelholder Release) – Category 12 Brewing

by Mike

From Victoria’s Category 12 Brewing comes their “Belgian Golden Strong Ale (Barrelholder Release)”.  This is the first release of a barrel program that was funded by the customers of the brewery.  This beer was aged in red wine barrels.  The beer pours a cloudy golden colour with a white head.  The aroma consists of wine, oak, fruity notes including citrus and some, vanilla, caramel and spices.  The flavour is of citrus especially lemon, melon, wine grapes, candied sugar, caramel, vanilla, oak, spices and a mild hint of alcohol.  The alcohol content comes in at a high 10.6%.  Once again Category 12 Brewing has hit it out of the park with this release.  I am so happy that I happened to find a bottle in a Vancouver store!

Commercial Description: Our Barrelholder series pays homage to the contributors of a successfuly campaign that allowed us to get an early start on the delicious process of barrel aging. Cheers to the original Barrelholders, and to you, the holder of this bottle!  This limited release Belgian Golden Strong Ale is crafted to be bright and crip with a medium body. Lightly fruity and spicy, the aging in red wine oak barrels has imparted delicate toasted oak and caramel notes. Combined with sweet vanilla overtones and a deceptive 10.6% ABV, the barrel process has added depth and complexity to an already delicious beer.

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