Copyright 2018. Laurence C. Hatch. All Rights Reserved. Please visit www.brew-base.com for updated files and news Ale - Amber or Red Ale - Barleywine and Wheatwine - see the Porter and Stout volume Ale - Barrel Aged and Oak-Mellowed Ale - Brown and Black Ale - Christmas/Holiday/Thanksgiving/Winter Ale - Cream Ale - Extra Special Bitter (ESB) Ale - Fruited and Flavored (but not IPA strong) Ale - Golden or Blonde Ale - IPA and DIPA are found in a separate volume Ale - Pale Ale - Scottish ALE - BARREL AGED AND OAK-MELLOWED I exclude the barrel-aged Belgian beers (usually brown subcategory) and they are covered under the Ale - Belgian sections. Age stouts and porters remain under those sections. Also, barleywines can be barrel-aged and some are included there but I will duplicate others here as well if there is merit in two classifications. If the barrel-aged ale is heavily flavored or fruited with anything other than hops, malt, and yeast, it will be in the Ale - Fruited and Flavored section. The section is here is more basic, unflavored and unaugmented ales without nothing but casks and wood to improve them. "Smoked and Oaked" beers are not entirely new and I first discovered them in Kentucky bourbon country in 2008. In 2010 and 2011 they became more widely sold in beer stores. Barleywine and Christmas ales with barrel-aging are covered in those sections. Barleywines and Wood-aged stouts and porters are placed in the Stout, Porter, and Barleywine volume. It is often hard to separate a very strong barrel-aged ale from some barleywines and we rely in part on what the label says - and part on our own desire to reclassify it. Some are called American Strong Ale or English Old Ale and add to that wood aging. Allagash Curieux Ale RATING: 5.0 Portland, Maine For me any of the corked, 750ml Allagash issues are immediate purchases, even if the plastic must come out to acquire them. 760 casks of bourbon heritage were made of this potent 11% brew, first bottles in February 2010 and come to my specialty beer store in North Carolina in April 2010. It pours as pale as a Belgian white but has surprising limited last and a docile head. The more yeasty pours - and the bottle shows evident cloudiness (I almost put down "clear cloudiness") - are fruity and complex, delicious beyond compare and nearly as good a treat as Orval. Even the early, less yeasty pours are luminous in all possible ways, formidable among scores of sound American 750's, and so wondrous I almost have to stop and give it physical salute. Maybe I should write them. The probably with this statement of equality is that our American worldclass ales are one-offs and limited production. The European craft it all under their one name and keep it all steady, perfect and famous for centuries. It's almost like we're ashamed to be world-beating, idiocyncratic, and crazy awesome all the time! Here is a grand, mind-blowing ale that needs to let it's light shine on a world stage - and get laid down 10,000 casks at a time. Alltech Lexington Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale RATING: 4.5 Lexington, Kentucky The red light on the self-scan cash register flashed. A bold but stern electronic-female voice boomed that I should remove the object from my bag immediately and contact a cashier. The long-haired, somewhat rotund and rumpled lady cashier holding a portable computer and obviously baffled by all the technology came over and in a thick Shepherdsville KY accent informed me I had violated the local Sunday laws about buying beer. "I'm from out of state..I didn't know" I said in a mousy, apologetic voice, trying to avoid her continued glare as if was trying to fool her. But it was five PM in the afternoon! Even in our strict North Carolina valleys we can buy beer after 2 PM or church, whichever ends last. This damn grocery store was a piece up the road from Jim Beam and half the great bourbon factories in the world for God's sake! The hotel manager said I could buy some up in Louisville or another county just 20 minutes away. Not withstanding my first attempt to buy a four-pack of this brew, this is a very fine smooth product, more sweet than it needs to be but absolutely "elegantly smooth" as they planned and declare. The supply of barrels is close and likely affordable, so perhaps all that glorious, seasoned, blessed oak will do us US beer lovers more good in the future; instead of going over to Europe to make their malty stuff. It won a Silver Medal at the ABF. Boulevard Rye On Rye Whiskey-Barrel-Aged Ale (Limited Series) RATING: 5.0. Award of Merit 2018 Kansas City, Missouri At 12% ABV, spiced with rye malt, and barrel-aging this sounds like a fairly potent thing in theory. The "rye on rye" implies to us that rye whiskey barrels were used but this label was not on their website to confirm. The pour is a very rich, amber-red that reminds one of a cherry color in general, the head light cream, short, but lasting. It is simply glorious in any glass and better in fine crystal. First sip is refined, layered, always agreeable, and then it heads directly towards...magical. Panelists wrote "absolutely charming...immediately obvious that this is wood-aged ale perfection...remarkable, memorable, and simply stunning" and "heaven on earth...ale paradise for me the first time in months...absolutely a genius recipe and ideal execution of rye, hops, and wood notes in a melodious balance...I'm truly blown way". All of us were blown away. This could easily have been too strong, overpowering, ragged, and a club to the cranium to justify a high price. Instead it's lovely, velvety with a substantial delivery of both delicate and fulfilling rich notes of many kinds. These guys get it and can tune an ale like a Formula One road missle. Some of us on the panel felt it was something like a good rye whiskey with a hint of real fruit juice and perhaps a very drinkable, lower ABV (depending on the bar) "Old Fashioned". Comparing a wood-aged ale to a world-beating cocktail is praise enough and indicative of the fully developed, stratified, ripened flavor profile in this bottle. We hope they make it again and forever and ever until heaven's angels claim it for the Cloud Nine Alehouse above. Perhaps it's already there or did it actually come down from there in a dream... BrewDog Paradox Isle of Arran Stout RATING: 5.0 Fraserburgh, Scotland The idea of a stout aged in whiskey barrels is enough to...well...make me pay $7 for a small bottle of beer. The aroma is hard to pin down and so one must sip. The best way to think of this fine 10% brew is that of classic super-malty stout spiced with a bit of cinnamon, vanilla, and that whiskey- barrel nip which is probably 289 different nameable chemicals - were I to have a mass spec machine on this desk. Oak aging can be overdone and underdone but here it is judged just right to compliment rather than be subdued by or dominating the classic stout theme. It is very much a spiced stout in practice and one that is ultra-yummy. This would be fantastic as some kind of flavoring for a sauce or batter given the depth and quality of flavors. I rarely get two bottle beers in one day and this one came directly after 8-4-1 Redhook so I was even harder to amaze. This is a savory beer in a good sense, satisfying down to the gills, a rare combination of flavors should should be more common and be tried often again. BrewDog Storm RATING: 4.0 Fraserburgh, Scotland This is going to be one of the most controversial beers you try when you see it and sip it down. Stormy for sure. The teal blue letter on the black label while challenge one's sight for one thing. The "malt beverage" tag partnered with barrel aging is quite new - a cheap thing together with a premium thing. The color is hazy gold and not exactly the expected aging material that normally is loaded with dark malts. It is almost smokey enough to be a rauschbier and has a harsh, medicinal finish that is either "dripping with oak, lurid, and challenging to love" or "wow...new and crazy...just what I needed today, something well made and creative" to quote two of my trusted advisers who drink too much beer and call their mothers far too seldom for their hobby. For me it is big, eccentric, hard to love in some ways, maybe like a bad girl who want to like very much but know better. Storm as smokey as three block of burned out warehouses with three companies still hosing it down to embers and Sal grinning from his white Cadillac four blocks down. There are thing here I do not identify as beverage or food flavors. Hops are there but musty fungus is three notches above that mess. The whiskey barrel nip is there and that makes things probably about another compounds far more complex. Many folks are neutral on this. Being a beer blending, I look as this one as an opportunity to make other beers more odd and this one improved with certain things like sweetness and more malt.