Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak (Rum Barrel)

Brewed by Captain Lawrence Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Pleasantville, New York USA

Enjoyed at AlohaCs tasting. I really liked this beer. Dark, malty and sweet. I didnt get any smoky characteristics. Had the nice warm boozy taste.

Batch 1 750ml via trade I think with puzzl, shared at the holiday tasting AlohaC hosted tonight. Pours black with a 1 finger tan head. Nose is rummy and sweet, and overall malty. Taste is sweet malty and rich with big rum characteristics and overall very nice, very big and very full bodied.

750 ml bottle, batch 1, via trade - Pours a dark brown color with a small light tan head. Light lacing. From here my notes are a little vague since I didnt take any. What I do remember about this beer is the dark esters and phenols. Honestly, I was not impressed with this beer. I did detect some light smoke, chocolate, and roastiness. Maybe I sat on this bottle too long. Anyways, its worth a try.

Bottled batch 2. Opaque black, hugh brown head. Rum-oak aroma with roasted coffee beans. Alcoholic rum-booze flavor, cigar and oak. Intensive tobacco mixed with rum aftertaste.

Batch 2, kindly shared by dchmela. Pours black with no head. On the nose rum, smoke, chocolate, some oak. Sweet and rummy in flavor, some brown sugar, and dark chocolate with some tannic hints. Dry, smooth and low carb. Very impressive.

Bottled (thanks PilsnerPeter!). Pitch black colour, mediumsized brown fluffy head. Aroma is a lot of espresso coffee, some nuts, wood and also quite much rum in it. Flavour is coffee, fruits, wood, sap, chocolate and smoke. These things go all the way until the finish, leaving a nice chocolaty, smoked and roasted aftertaste with a slight sting of rum.

Batch 2 bottle courtesy of a couple of very generous traders poured into a snifter. Pours dark brown out of the bottle settling in as an almost completely opaque black in the glass. The head is tan and massive, and lingers as an inch-thick cap throughout leaving decent lacing. The aroma starts out as a dominant rum but get a little more complex as it warms, opening up to the more traditional porter aromas of dark chocolate, roasted malts and a hint of smoke. The taste also has an initial kick of rum and maybe a hint of sourness before the roasted malt base comes through. There is chocolate and coffee as well, before the smoke and rum come back for the finish. The mouthfeel is very smooth and creamy but actually is a bit dry in the finish with some bitterness lingering. This is a very interesting brew and my first rum-aged beer. To be honest, I enjoyed this one quite a bit more than the wine version. Recommended.

25 oz bottle, Batch 1, via puzzl probably. Pours a slightly murky brown body with a large foamy brown head after spewing forth from the bottle rather violently. The nose is pretty decent, roasty with sweet rum notes, a lot of earthy yeast, roast, and a touch of sourness maybe. The flavor is quite different from any other BA beer I’ve had. The rum is slightly sweet and spicy with just a very minimal raw oaky note on the finish. There’s definately something going on here that probably wasn’t planned, but I really think that it works pretty well. The bugs and the rum mix with lightly sweet chocolate and a hint of smoke on the finish. There’s also no hint of alcohol to this at all, which is often the most negative aspect of barrel aging to me. The mouthfeel has thinned a bit beyond what it was fresh, with a fairly soft moderate carbonation level. I think that the spewing from the bottle actually benefited the beer by relaxing the carbonation some. Overall, this was what it was, and I enjoyed it for that, but I would really like to try a new batch to see what it might be like fresh.