Time for another episode of do I know my anatomy from a hole in the ground, brought to you by the generous @pkingmartin! This, for starters, looks like bourbon. The color is rich and natural with a slight orange or light copper hue. The legs come down in sheets. The nose is high octane - felt not smelt. I’m guessing 120+ proof territory based on the singe. Lots of rye spice, bit of varnish and old wood. There is some peanut brittle, walnut, vanilla, cherry, banana, old books, cinnamon and nutmeg. The longer it opens up the better it gets. I would guess 15yo Beam if I had to gamble. Could be Barton but at this proof os more well rounded than most of their stuff. Big, spicy, oily and a bit tannic with plenty of esters. No doubt this is 15y Kentucky high-rye bourbon. The brown sugar and pure vanilla extract are front and center, then walnut and a bit of varnish and leather alongside allspice, turmeric and cinnamon. I’m gonna go all in with this being a 14-15 year old Beam distillate (or the mystery one-off that likely came from Beam, ie. KY Senator, Old Soul 15, Chicken Cock 15, 78.5/13/8.5, etc). There is a bit more brown sugar than what I remember about KY Senator 15 but has the same, nearly bitter ending riddled with tannins and a dash of old books. Certainly a sophisticated, high proof pour that’s spent some time in the KY heat - right? Wrong. Completely wrong. 9 year Dickel. I’ve never had a beer-cask finished bourbon and am left a bit speechless. This drinks like something much older than it is. I also don’t think of beer as tannic but maybe something between the beer being low ABV and interacting with the wood first changed the chemistry of the interaction with bourbon. I can see the deeper toffee and perhaps even the leather notes coming from a brown ale finish. In fact, maybe the alpha acids from the hops somehow impart those near-bitter tannins. Who knows. How to rate this. I would say it is every bit as solid as the 15y mystery mash bill. The problem is that is is also practically as expensive without offering much more. I will say that the extra pop of brown sugar is welcome compared to the mystery bill. I’m knocking KY Senator way down due to cost and will give this a square 4.0.