Tastes

Pours a deep, dark golden amber, almost brown color, nice legs. Smells fabulous, rich caramel, vanilla, oak, notes of spice but this is clearly the low rye recipe. Not that it matters, as this nose just keeps opening up, the sort of bourbon that you can savor for hours on end. After a little water, the caramel softens a bit, feels more molassesey or something, still amazing. Taste hits the rich caramel, oak, and vanilla up front, some spicy, earthy notes too, lots of booze. Water mellows it out some, brings out some sweet notes. Mouthfeel is rich and full bodied, coats your mouth with a long finish, is naturally very boozy, but somehow not as harsh as some bourbons that are much lower in ABV. A little water smooths it out some, at the cost of a little intensity (though you kinda have to at some point, and it’s still pretty amazing). Overall, this is pretty spectacular stuff… Beer Nerd Musings: For all the hype about Pappy barrel aged beer, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Stagg barrel aged beer. They exist, of course, but they seem few and far between. Evil Twin made a Stagg barrel aged Belgian Pale Ale, which seems like a tremendous waste. In fact, I can’t seem to find any of the more prized BA styles like stout or barleywine, but it does seem like a ripe market for the taking. I guess you could say these are just “Buffalo Trace” barrels, which might work. These are definitely used a lot with beer, and usually turn out quite good, as evidenced by the win in the FiftyFifty Eclipse horizontal tasting. Also pretty tough to beat Buffalo Trace Barrel Aged Black Magick (though the Pappy Black Magick did, I think). Personally, I don’t think I’d use this for homebrew. Seems like a crime to do anything but drink this whole bottle, neat (and, you know, with a little water).

Pours a golden orange color, long legs, smells sweet, cornbread, rich caramel, nutty oak, lots of vanilla, marshmallow, a bit of the spice box, maybe even some pine. More spice in the taste than the nose, but that sweet cornbread and caramel hits too, with lots of oak, vanilla, hints of mint, nuts, molasses. Mouthfeel is full bodied and rich, definitely hot but not hazmat levels - pushing it, but it works neat. Overall, delicious stuff, reasonably well balanced, worth the stretch for sure… Beer Nerd Musings: Near as I can tell, there are no beers aged in barrels specifically attributed to Barrell (now, there are some beers in various databases that misspell “barrel” and include an extra “l”, but I don’t think that counts), but since they source all their barrels, I suppose they could make it to a brewery somewhere… Since Barrell seems to be good at picking barrels for their blends, I’m guessing they’d be good fodder for bba beer. Batch 31 is supposedly built around a 99% corn bourbon, which is a rare but not completely unheard of barrel for beer aging (Eclipse had a Mellow Corn variant a while back that was very good)….

Still a necessity when watching a Giallo movie, but it’s not particularly good

Not gonna blow you away, but exactly what it needs to be, tasty and a little hot, again as it should be.

Light oak, mint, honey, just a little vanilla and caramel, a bit of spice, strong booze note, tasty stuff, quite nice but not my favorite profile…

Dusty oak, vanilla, caramel, baking spices, cinnamon, standard and solid pour

Distilled 1996, bottled 2014.

Total Wine, barrel 101983, 99 proof, bottle 20/140