Drakes 15th Anniversary Bourbon Barrel Lager

Formerly brewed at Drakes Brewing Company
Style: European Strong Lager
San Leandro, California USA

Certainly an odd one here. Deep copper amber, no head. Bourbon, vanilla aroma, and similar flavors. Virtually no lager character. Smooth palate. In addition to the bourbon and vanilla flavors, there is a hint of graham cracker and caramel, perhaps even a woodsy note, as well.

6 oz. bottle via trade with IrishBoy - Pours a slightly hazy dark amber color with a faint small bubbles head. Has a sweet, estery, oak aroma. Very nice. Has a sweet, fruity flavor. Alcohol is quite noticable. Medium body. Oak (bourbon) flavor lingers on the tongue. This beer tastes a lot like Fred from the Wood. I don’t know where the Lager comes in to play. I like it anyways. Thanks Richard.

Courtesy of DYCSoccer17. Hazy brown with chunkage. I understand why but that still can’t make it pretty. Strong woody and corky aroma, huge brown sugar, toffee, strong chewy and savory malt notes, honey and little hop presence. Obviously very aromatic. Thick, velvety, tongue-coating initial mouthfeel. Pipe tobacco, strong cooling EtOH presence and a light hint of rum in the flavor. Fatty, tongue-coating finish that I found quite strange and somewhat unappealing.

6 ounce bottle shared with Grant. Purchased at BevMo in Vacaville, CA. Aroma has some definite bourbon and booziness present. There is also a bit of fruitiness and sweet malts in the nose as well. Pretty quaffable. Murky dark amber body with virtually no head, but nice legging. Boozy, bourbon notes to start, turning a bit sour and astringent. Some swampy notes later with some chocolate notes and some woodsiness. Very light, minor dry hops to finish. Not sure if I like this or not. Some late vanilla notes.

Bottle courtesy of Dark Elf. Pours an opaque brown and relatively flat (much less carbonation than the regular version). Smells of tarte cherries, oak, toffee, caramel and scattered hops. Taste is of oak, alcohol, lots of barleywine like malt and mellow hops and some lasting bitterness on the finish.

Bottle via trade with AlohaC. This is not a lager, it’s a barleywine. The smell threw me off at first because it smelled like a barleywine. I had the wrong glass out for it at first. Very malty taste with a smooth mouthfell. Slight alcohol burn. Decent brew.

I nust say,this brew had a dirty river water look to it,cloudy and hazy like the mighty Mississippi after a good rain. Gotta’ love that. Nose was troubling to me as I was fully expecting a blast of bourbon but it was more like a regular barley wine that had a bit of barnyard aroma tossed in. Flavor was a bit better as the syrupiness carried some oaken and vanilla notes but it is very mubbled to me.

Bottle via trade with footbalm. Orange color with strong bourbon aroma. Rich carmel malty flavor with some fruit&molasses. This beer was funny, flavors come on slowly then quickly vanish leaving a alcohol taste in the mouth.