Foothills Barrel Aged Peoples Porter

Brewed by Foothills Brewing
Style: Porter
Winston-Salem, North Carolina USA

Tasted at sexual chocolate release party! Dark brown pour with a frothy tan head. Oak, vanilla, and whiskey on the nose. Thin to medium bodied. Flavor follows suite when compared to the aroma.

Tasted at Foothills Sexual Chocolate release. Pours dark black that allows light the head is frothy light tan. The nose is very nice, prominent bourbon and oak coming through, very rich, tannic vanilla character, some of the base porter comes through. The flavor is oaky and tart bourbon character, chocolatey, rich, some roast shows up. Tannic and oaky on the palate.

Draft at the brewpub during the Sexual Chocolate release party. The pour is dark brown with some tan head. The nose has plenty of vanilla, bourbon, oak. Same in the flavor and very good. A bit watery though. I suppose that just makes it easier to drink, though I’d prefer a bit more fullness.

Draught. Pours dark mahoghany brown with a short-lived beige head. Aroma is a balance between chocolate and bourbon with the latter imparting nice vanilla notes. Woody barrel aromas balance roasty malts nicely. Flavor is similar with chocolate and bourbon prominent, and brown sugar, vanilla, cola, and oak notes rounding things out. Finishes bourbony and a little boozy. Medium bodied with a velvety smoothness enhanced by the barrel aging. This is good - pretty much what you’d expect when you take a very good porter and barrel age it. The barrel influence is relatively high but it works nicely, which is more noteworthy considering that its not a particularly full-bodied beer to start with.

Duck-Rabbit’s Milk Stout was recently given a nice, long rest in a barrel of Pappy Van Winkle’s 23-Year Old Family Reserve. Appearance: Dark brown, near black body with a few tired-looking, beige bubbles resting on top. Smell: Porter-minded notes of chocolate and roasty coffee with the strong scent of quality bourbon whiskey leading the charge. Taste: Dark maltiness displayed as a taste of bittersweet chocolate with a minor toffee-like sweetness and a swig of morningtime coffee. The bourbon definitely dominates the flavor, but, thankfully, doesn’t really detract from it as it delivers an abundance of charred oak barrel flavor with a light bitterness trailing close behind. Lesser tastes of coconut and brown sugar. Richly bourbony finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium-low carbonation. Drinkability: Kudos to the folks at Foothills for producing a fine, tasty bourbon barrel-aged porter.

Dark and roasty, not dominated by burbon in the nose. The flavor is als balanced. The barrel has brought out a lot of vanilla and oak. Nice.

Cask. Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting. Pours black with small beige head. Aroma of heavy bourbon, vanilla, oak, not much porter. Taste is similar, with lots of bourbon, oak, and vanilla, some light chocolate. Body is smooth and full. Overall, solid with a little too much on the bourbon. Nice offering.

Growler provided by, I believe, cardsfan1 at the HMoG at the Brick Store. He mentioned this was aged in Pappy Van Winkle 23yr barrels. Pours almost completely black with only hints of mahogany coming through at the edges. The head was short-lived, tan and left decent lacing. The aroma is very well-balanced for a barrel-aged beer with the bourbon present initially in the nose. Pretty quickly the chocolate sweetness and dark malts come through and hints of vanilla as well. The taste is just as balanced with the bourbon blending almost perfectly with the chocolate. The malt backbone is definitely noticeable and doesn’t let the bourbon dominate completely. Perfectly balanced, which I can’t often say about bourbon barrel beers. The mouthfeel is surprisingly light for a bourbon beer and with decent carbonation - very smooth overall. Well, this one just blew me away. Having never had the normal Peoples Porter, I don’t exactly know what to compare it to. What I do know is that this is a fantastic beer and one of the top 2 beers I tried at the HMoG. Outstanding.