I’d like to thank Four Roses, New Belgium Brewing, and their PR teams for providing this sample with no strings attached.
I may have adopted Minnesota as my home, but my formative years were spent in Wisconsin. Home of beer, cheese, and those who consume lots of both. And let me tell you, boy, did I. Before I moved away twenty years ago, beer was the only alcohol I consumed. Occasionally, a glass of wine, but beer was my drink of choice. But then I moved, and a funny thing happened. Since, at the time, you could only buy beer in a liquor store—and liquor stores were forced to be closed on Sundays (well, if you didn’t want 3.2 beer)—I was forced to branch out. And branch out I did. There’s a straight line between Minnesota's lack of Sunday sales pre-2017 and the birth of this site.
However, even though I drank a lot less beer overall, I still really enjoyed trying new ones. If I hadn’t had it before, I wanted it. Though I’ve greatly tapered off in recent years, I still have over 1,500 unique beers checked into my Untappd profile—just over 100 new beers per year on average. Not too shabby.
Anyway, all of that was to explain why there’s a beer review on a bourbon blog. Mostly, because I like beer. And since Four Roses was nice enough to offer a sample of their recent collaboration with New Belgium, there was no way I could say no. One of my favorite bourbon makers and a brewery that I enjoy a lot of beer from. It seemed like it was made just for me. That is, if I liked barrel-aged beers… but we’ll get to that later. Here’s what the press release has to say about the process behind this beer:
Four Roses collects charred oak chips from inside their bourbon barrels, which contain caramelized wood sugars that add notes of brown sugar, vanilla, and toffee, and add color to the whiskey while it ages.
A barrel maker in Minnesota toasts a custom blend of oak spirals which are then soaked in Four Roses’ bourbon.
New Belgium's master brewing engineers spent months figuring out exactly how to construct a series of custom, stainless-steel vessels to hold the charred oak and wood spirals to infuse the beer.
New Belgium's high-rye base ale is circulated through these vessels during maturation, imparting the beautiful flavor notes from the charred oak and bourbon-soaked spirals.
Ok, lets pour a cold one and see how this tastes.
Oakspire Bourbon Barrel Ale
Purchase Info: This sample was provided at no cost for review purposes. It is available at my local liquor store for $13.99 for a six-pack.
Nose: Very biscuity with caramel and a faint hint of pine.
Mouth: Caramel, malty, biscuity, nutty, and you can certainly taste the bourbon and barrel influences.
Thoughts: Ok, so first thing to get on the table: I don’t usually like barrel-aged beers. I find them too sweet. I like a bitter beer with only enough sweetness to balance it out a bit. My go-to pour these days is still a hazy IPA. I like that tropical flavor. That, or a sour. I love a good sour beer. They’re very refreshing. But the good news is that my wife really enjoys barrel-aged beers. So, in a break from tradition, I decided to ask her to give her thoughts:
I like it. While it’s still sweet and boozy, what I particularly enjoy about this one is that it isn’t nearly as sweet or boozy as other barrel-aged beers I’ve had. It’s got a hint of bourbon, but you can still taste the beer. Sometimes they get overwhelmed by the barrel.
There you have it. Wife approved. And I have to agree, I also like this more than other barrel-aged beers I’ve had. Especially ice-cold. Once it warms up, it gets a bit too sweet for me. I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth, though.
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