Big Sky MDX

draft @ Big Wood - dark brown and flat; smokey, meaty aromas mixed with tons of barrel notes; bourbon and vanialla sweetness almost too much; goes down almost like watered down scotch as the base beer is completely overwhelmed

Muddy dark chestnut colour. Sticky demerara nose with light alcohol and some oversteeped assam tea. Soft body with sticky sugars and alcoholic dryness.

Bottle: Dark dark brown, thin bubbley head, settles quickly, sparce lacing... seems aged and/or still.   Bourbony nose, subtle caramel and slight vanilla.   Sweet malt flavor, bourbon is not as strong as suggested.   Underlying beer is somewhat weak.   Lingering bourbon after the finish.   Underlying Imperial Brown is overshadowed by the bourbon.   Too thin, body needs a bit more umph.   Would have been interesting had they done the Slow Elk Stout.  Other than that, it was still enjoyable.

On tap at the 06 Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival. I went back to the table many times for this beer. My initial impression was not good, but it got better with each sample. Thin fizzy head that quickly shrank to a ring in the glass. Hypnotic aroma of butter, oak and maple frosting. The frosting sweetness follows into the taste, with oak barrel, maple candy, toffee and an almost praline hint. Dry finish. Nice beer, but I did not get a lot of the Beam in it.

Watery, thin, timid brown...some nuttiness present, a hint (only) of bourbon barrel. A thin chocolate/caramel profile, but not much going on here.

Apparently this was supposed to be some kind of souped up Moose Drool, but it fell pretty short. Not much to look at, a lifeless dull brown with a filmy head, this had a sweet, worty aroma with some bitter nuts tossed in. Thin in the mouth, it had a sweet malt taste with a hint of chocolate, Brazil nuts, and just a touch of bourbon. Once was enough.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eventID95>The Third Annual Festival of Barrel-Aged Beers, Chicago, IL 11/12/2005<font size=-1>