The Bar Towel

Holy Moly! It's a barrel bomb! It's going to really depend on your tastes if you like it or not. Just sneaking a sip right now and saving the rest for tonight.

But it's not a raw american oak kind of woody barrel bomb, but a smokey peaty scotchy kind of bomb.

Apparently they blended unaged nutcracker and only aged it in the barrels for two months. The barrels from Islay, however, had scotch in them right before they left for Black Oak in them hence the strong scotch flavours and aromas.

Reminds me a little of what the Pinot Noir barrels did to Bolshevik Bastard, but in scotch form.

The alcohol is boosted to 6.5 and that's AFTER the blend!

Does the original nutcracker get buried? A little first, yeah, but the malts do come in at the end, and there's a chocolatey sweetness in the middle and close to the end, but it's also fighting with the peat a bit in the overall finish. After you get over the initial shock of al that scotch flavours you start to recognize the porter again.

If you liked that St. Peter's Whiskey beer, you'll like this. I prefer this I think because the porter adds more complexity and body in the end.

This also makes me more eager to try Canny Man. From what I've heard the malts really stand up well to the barrel treatment, but we'll see.

I like it, but I like craziness like this!

JeffPorter wrote: Reminds me a little of what the Pinot Noir barrels did to Bolshevik Bastard, but in scotch form.

As a person who can't stand really peaty scotch flavours, this post just made me a whole lot less excited about this beer...

TheSevenDuffs wrote:

JeffPorter wrote: Reminds me a little of what the Pinot Noir barrels did to Bolshevik Bastard, but in scotch form.

As a person who can't stand really peaty scotch flavours, this post just made me a whole lot less excited about this beer...

Yeah - sorry - this might not be your thing, then.

It's pretty much this -

TheSevenDuffs wrote:

JeffPorter wrote: Reminds me a little of what the Pinot Noir barrels did to Bolshevik Bastard, but in scotch form.

As a person who can't stand really peaty scotch flavours, this post just made me a whole lot less excited about this beer...

+1

I just picked up two bottles of this and a six of the regular nutcracker to compare. I was excited to get home and crack one of each open. Not so much any more.

At least the drive wasnt all a waste picked up some GLB Audry Hopburn.

I'd love to try that... Nutcracker is one of my all-time favourites!

Having the rest of the bottle tonight, I notice the porter qualities a lot more, especially in the aroma.

But, yeah, scotch heavy, so if you don't like the smokiness of scotch, might not be your thing.

On the other hand, it kind of tastes like a robust porter made with a good amount of smoke malt. Which is really interesting.

Derek wrote:I'd love to try that... Nutcracker is one of my all-time favourites!

Also one of mine and I have to agree with TheBeeraholic. My wife surprised me with a few bottles and I was really looking forward to it. If I didn't know it was the same base beer, I wouldn't believe it. The peaty, scotchy (I think I picked up some tobacco & iodine too) flavours really aren't my thing. I'll set the other two down for a while and see if aging does anything.

I think Nutcracker would have been better suited to bourbon barrels rather than scotch, but then I loves me my bourbon and think scotch should be poured back into the horse.

How does this compare to the Ola Dubh beers the LCBO had in awhile back? I recall the Ola Dubh 40 being very heavy on the Scotch flavours, and I liked it a lot.

JeffPorter wrote: This also makes me more eager to try Canny Man. From what I've heard the malts really stand up well to the barrel treatment, but we'll see.

If you liked this one Jeff, you'll probably love the Canny Man. It's much higher in ABV (9.1%) and the smoky peat flavours are huge. Being a 750ml bottle, it is one to share though!

Soods wrote:

JeffPorter wrote: This also makes me more eager to try Canny Man. From what I've heard the malts really stand up well to the barrel treatment, but we'll see.

If you liked this one Jeff, you'll probably love the Canny Man. It's much higher in ABV (9.1%) and the smoky peat flavours are huge. Being a 750ml bottle, it is one to share though!

I'm looking forward to it!

Drinking this right now...

The scotch notes definitely dominate, so much so that that you can barely taste the nutcracker. That said, despite this and despite not being all that big on scotch in the first place, I kind of like this one.