Foothills Barrel Aged Seeing Double IPA

Good Beer--Bourbon was real strong in this IPA. Maybe a little less and this would be a killer IPA

sampled at brewgrass festival 2009.... semi-transparent apricot brown pour with a thin milky just off-white head.... grassy hope combine with caramel and vanilla overtones... flavors were sweet and focused on the vanilla and toffee notesthat previal which then eventually give way to a bitter piney finish. medium carbonation. a little too sweet but ok overall.

Sampled at Brewgrass 2009. Clear orangey copper, small white head. Big bourbon nose right off the bat, with more traitional IPA smells in the background. Flavor is also some bourboun, with pine and citrus and pine in the background. Good, but somehow doesn’t quite mesh as well as I’d hoped.

This was a pretty good beer, but the DIPA characteristics were almost completely lost with the bourbon. The bourbon, however was great, but certainly dominated this beer.

WBF sample. Pours a hazy golden amber with a one finger light yellow head. The nose is bourbony, sweet, alcohol, hops are definitely subdued on this one. Barrel character takes over. Flavor is bourbon, vanilla, oak, warm alcohol, some hop bitterness. DIPA definitely took a back seat to this one.

On tap at the Raleigh WBF. The barrel aging for this makes it a completely different beer. Almost no hop character at all. However, the wood does give this beer a totally unique character without tasting like booze (not sure if this is aged in whiskey barrels but if it is it does not pick up the whiskey flavor). A very good beer but not as impressive as the regular Seeing Double. Very glad I was able to try this one.

Another example of why I just don’t think that IIPA’s should be barrel aged. The hop character was more subdued than the regular version, and the barrel clashed with the hop profile. Not bad, but I’d take the regular version over this any day.