Despite being done with the 7 day beer challenge, at least one person seems to enjoy them (or has a strange hatred of my liver and brain cells). I took a day off yesterday for my son's eighth birthday, and didn't have anything nice to say about the beer I had the previous day. So I guess despite the streak being broken, this is day 10. #dealWithIt
This evening I went deep into my backlog for a Barrel Aged Brrrbon (2013) by Widmer Brothers Brewing. Widmer Brothers Brewing has pretty wide distribution from their home in Portland, OR, so you may be able to find a newer release of this in the fall where ever you live.
Despite being so old, it was well carbonated and hadn't picked up any of the oxygenated notes that old beers get. It may be that the wax seal actually did its job and protected the beer from the ravages of air and time. Some aged beer is lucky and develops some sherry notes. Some aged beer is unlucky and starts to taste and smell like wet cardboard. Either this didn't develop either or the fact that it was a winter warmer (which has lots of spices added during brewing) might have hidden them. I don't know, I'm not a doctor.
Anyway, smelling it when I first opened it gave almost no aroma. I didn't even smell the spices that had to be in it to be considered a winter warmer. After it started to warm up I could pick out some clove flavors and maybe some allspice. It blended pretty well with the vanilla and bourbon notes from the barrel, though the vanilla was pretty obscured by the spices.
It's a winter warmer, which means me drinking it on a 62F spring day in Texas means I'm doin' it wrong. I'm okay with that. I also drank it while eating sushi from a convenience store. If I turn out to be patient zero for the zombie uprising, I'm 97% sure it was the sushi and not the beer.
