Big Sky Biere de Noel

This brew was aged for 3 months in Bourbon barrels. Pours a dark brown apricot color w/ a full, semi creamy froth. Superb hangtime reducing slowly to a thick downy canopy. Nice! Strong aromas of darkfruit, cakebread, and cocoa. Full nectar w/ perfect carbonation for a luscious creamy texture. A moderate sweetness possessing rich fruit flavors of blackcherry, plumb, apricot, red flame grapes, and wild apple. Cakebread, mild spice, and cocoa also push forward. As the brew warms the chocolate cakebread flavor takes control and wins out over the fruit. It’s a nice transition. The finish lingers w/ an alcoholic burn that doesn’t annoy me in the least. This brew is rich, viscous, and like the holiday very giving. Highly recommended.

Good brew from Big Sky. Poured was a nice brown color with good size head. Aroma was oaky dark fruits and something else. Flavor was much the same, vanilla oak was strong and lots of fruits. Good beer.

Bottle: The aroma is a nice combination of apple pie, cherries, light caramel, chocolate, yeast, cinnamon, and faint alcohol. It pours a transparent brown with a moderate beige head. Lots of chocolate and caramel up front. There is some faint apple pie and cinnamon flavors in the background. It’s medium bodied with soft carbonation. Very tasty, but Abbey Dubbel? Only because the label says so I guess.

Capped bottle from Corti Bros., Sacramento. Slightly sour dark aromas of plum, berries, chocolate, bread, and likely more. Very dark color with a substantial beige head (that crawled out of the bottle - it’s bottle conditioned). Thin to medium body with creamy carbonation. It starts chocolate. Very. It’s a bit sweet, but has an underlying sour note. It has a very fresh berry fruit aspect. There is a little heat. After a bit the chocolate is more cocoa. The finish is dark, very mildly sweet, and woody/bitter. I still think there is a sour note, but with so much going on it’s difficult to be sure. The Belgians could learn from this. Fantastic drink.

Bottle: Brown hue with amber highlights, frothy head and spotty lace. The aroma has notes of currant, plum, carrot cake, coriander, nutmeg, anise, chocolate, caramel, Belgium candy sugar, wood and leather, NICE!

Rich sweet malts an ripened fruit greets the taster with a spicy and moderate alcohol presence in support. Slight sour and bittersweet tones come in and out. The mouth feel is lush and aggressive with a slight warming upon the chest. Really nice surprise but this should be listed as a Belgian Strong Ale however. (THX Kevin)