Pours a deep, dark coppery orange color with plenty of legs. Smells great, lots of oak, some caramel, spicebox, cinnamon, dark fruit, vanilla. Taste follows the nose, lots of oak, moar spicebox, cinnamon and the like, a little dark fruit, more oak, and vanilla. Like the regular Elijah Craig, it’s very oaky, but this time, it feels more balanced with the rest, which is interesting. Mouthfeel is rich, full bodied, and quite hot. I mean, yeah, keep in mind my baby beer palate, and this isn’t the hottest thing I’ve drank, but it’s clearly there. Overall, a nice improvement over the base offering, and one of the better barrel strength offerings I’ve had (noticeably better than the younger offerings, like Booker’s or Stagg Jr.) Beer Nerd Musings: EC12 barrels seem to be prized amongst beer brewers. It historically played a role in BCBS (though their barrel program is so large at this point that who knows anymore). Interestingly, one of the most reliable EC12 barrel aged beers, FiftyFifty’s purple waxed Eclipse variant, seemed to be rarer in the most recent release. I’m unsure if that’s due to lack of barrels, some result of the loss of age statement, or probably most likely, just FiftyFifty’s desire to shake things up a bit (this year’s lineup featured a lot of adjuncts like maple, coffee, and vanilla, as well as more diverse barrels from apple brandy, rye, and even mead). Whatever the case, if a beer specifies that it’s aged in Elijah Craig barrels, it’s usually a good indication. The barrel proof offering is probably too expensive to use for homebrew (something the standard expression would be great for), but will make a great addition to my infinity bottle someday